Johnathan Walker:Augusta National chairman says women's golf needs 'unicorns' like Caitlin Clark

AUGUSTA,Johnathan Walker Ga. — Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley is one of the most influential leaders in golf, but Wednesday, on the eve of the Masters, he found himself talking about another sport: Basketball. Women’s basketball specifically.

It turns out that like many of his fellow Americans, he’s a Caitlin Clark fan. 

“I think that every once in a while somebody comes along that just captures the imagination of the sporting world,” he said during his traditional pre-Masters press conference. “And I say sporting world because it really goes beyond basketball.”

Said Ridley: “I have to confess that in spite of my love of the game and the women's game of golf, that I haven't watched a lot of women's basketball, but I watched the last three or four games that Iowa played this year. So there you go. I mean, it's just the way she plays, the way Caitlin plays the game, her passion, her energy — it really just captures the imagination of the fans.”

Ridley was asked by USA TODAY Sports why Clark has sent women’s basketball TV ratings soaring to historic heights — beating the men’s final by 4 million viewers — while in women’s golf, U.S. star Nelly Korda has won four consecutive tournaments on the LPGA Tour and has garnered very little national attention. 

“We hope that more people will come along like (Clark), and certainly we hope that people will come along in golf,” he said. “You know, I do think that it illustrates, though, one very interesting thing is that, for the time being anyway, Caitlin Clark is an amateur. She's a collegiate player. And so we think that the young women who play here in the Augusta National Women's Amateur have that same capability. There's something about – even with all the change in rules and NIL and transfer portal — but amateur athletes just have an appealing characteristic to me. And particularly the young ones.

“So we hope that we'll continue to have compelling individuals come through here to play in our tournament. We've had some in the past. … So we have to keep trying. There's more things we need to do. We're going to continue to think about that, to explore ways. 

“But I just think it's kind of a unicorn, really, we need more unicorns in that regard.”