JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the State of the Annika press conference here at Pelican Golf Club for the 2026 The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.
Up on the panel left to right, tournament namesake, tournament host, World Golf Hall of Famer, LPGA Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam; in the middle Dan Doyle, Jr. owner of Pelican Golf Club and owner of this great championship; to the right, Dan Towriss, president and CEO of Gainbridge and Group 1001.
I'll do a couple of quick opening questions and then we'll open it up to the audience for questions as well.
Annika, we'll start with you. This is the fourth year of the Annika, the seventh year of this championship in Tampa Bay. Talk about coming back to Tampa Bay as the host and seeing all the players and seeing your name all over the course and just your general excitement for this week.
ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Well, thanks, Jeremy. Welcome, everyone. It's great to be back. I can't believe it's the fourth year. It feels like it's just yesterday really. But then when you consider what we have done, I think it's been many, many years of hard work that's been put together.
Yeah, it's a treat to come back every year. This is a special place. If you've been here to Pelican before, you know it's just first class, and nothing different this year. The course looks amazing. Everything is really in great shape. I'm so happy to have these two partners here, Dan and Dan.
Again, it's a great week for us, for the whole family. Obviously my foundation is a big part of this week, so that makes me happy. I'm glad to see all the players are here, out there. Great storylines this year, I think. I think we're really looking forward to a wonderful week.
Q. Dan Doyle, as mentioned, this is the seventh year of this championship. This for you and your family and the staff at Pelican Golf Club, this is a pride and joy to bring the LPGA Tour here to Tampa Bay. From seven years ago to today, talk a little bit about the growth of this tournament, your initial expectations of this tournament, and how proud and excited you are on behalf of your family and the club to be hosting this event with these two great partners next to you.
DAN DOYLE JR: That's how I was going to start. The two people I have next to me make it so it happens.
We never expected when we started it that it would be this type of an event. We were hopeful, but we didn't expect it.
It's fun to walk around -- last week the buzz here from all the staff that are here, it was just, you could tell, everybody starts getting a little more excited. It was like the calm before the storm. Saturday I think we closed the golf course at noon and you could tell everyone started getting a little more excited, players started arriving, and you just feel it. You can feel the buzz.
I can tell you the town feels the buzz and Pinellas County feels the buzz, which I never thought would happen, and boom, we've got this incredible event. Dan coming in as our main sponsor. Cassidy was our big speaker today at the Women's Summit, which I heard you killed it, so thank you.
It's just exciting.
Here, perfect example. This is a family club to me. I'm the middle. I've got senior and I've got the third and Graham is back there. But here, Dan and his wife is now involved. His wife was the main speaker at our Women's Summit, and you look at it, and you look at Annika, Mike is here, the kids are here, it's just a big family environment. It's fun to see how that has evolved.
Q. Dan Towriss, going off of that, with Gainbridge, Gainbridge has been involved with the LPGA Tour for a long time, at several tournaments. Gainbridge also has been involved in -- one of your big priorities is to elevate women's sports. With Dan at Pelican Golf Club and with Annika, your experience at Gainbridge, at LPGA Tour events, talk about how heartwarming and all that it is for this partnership in this fourth year as title sponsor of this tournament.
DAN TOWRISS: Yeah, this really is a magical partnership for this event, for Gainbridge, and what we're trying to do. We very much believe in just sports, really sports and education and the role it plays across communities. But then we think about elevating women's sports, which for us is investing in that, creating opportunities.
We talked about in the Women's Summit the idea that sports creates our future leaders, and so it makes sense to grow women's sports. It's an important part of the sports fabric here in the U.S. and globally.
To be able to do that with Annika, with Dan Doyle, with Pelican, just the atmosphere at this club, from every single person that works here, the quality of the golf course, the energy and excitement around this tournament, it's absolutely fantastic.
We love, love being here. We definitely circle this week and look forward to it every single year.
Q. Annika, at this tournament you have 60 alums of the ANNIKA Foundation and your junior events that are here. When you see all these players that are here that you may have seen them when they were 12, 13 years old at various junior events, seeing them out here on the LPGA Tour, with Dan Doyle, with Dan Towriss and this combination of this tournament, how special is that for you to continue your legacy and to continue to leave a legacy on the LPGA Tour?
ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. Keep in mind, maybe they were 12 and then I was 25, right? Yeah, you're right, I'm getting all the numbers mixed up.
It's very, very special. Since I stepped away from 2008, spending a lot of time trying to grow the game, which is a very broad word, but just trying to inspire and advance young women, which is very similar to, Dan, what you were talking about. We feel the same. These are the next leaders. Maybe not just in sports but to C-suites in general. That's been my focus the last 18 years.
It makes us super proud to have so many alumnis here. Some of them have really strengthened the field but also inspired others and that's really what it's all about.
So it's cool to see all these young players come up. I look at them, and it's like, wow, you've done really well, and I'm excited for them that they've fulfilled their dreams and again they inspire others.
But for them to be part of this event is a big deal. This tournament is the end of the year. A lot of players want to get into CME next week and we've got some great invites this week. I mean, it's all surrounding not just around family, but also around the youth, the young players that are coming, the upcoming players. That's really what gets me going every day with the ANNIKA Foundation, is we want to provide opportunities for them, and this is a tournament that does that.
So it's really coming to a full circle because we've got the clinic on Saturday, kids come in for free here, and then you see the players playing here.
I feel like this is a great platform for a lot of the initiatives and a lot of the dreams and kind of the missions that we have together.
Q. Dan Doyle, talk about Pelican Golf Club as the host for this week. For a little background for the group, Pelican Golf Club was named by the LPGA Tour the best host facility, best host club in 2025. What's been some of the feedback from the players that have been here the past couple of weeks practicing, and then what are some of the subtle changes that you guys have made to the golf course to improve the course for the play each year?
DAN DOYLE JR: I'll tell you, the ladies have been -- they come out here and they love it, and they're very thankful for being here. I sat with a few of them on Sunday and they were just talking about some subtle changes.
The biggest one that's visual is the first tee. We changed the first tee. Made it longer, so it's going to give us a few more options there throughout the week.
But the second change that we made, we really worked on our rough. Our rough is a little more challenging this year. We did a lot of verticutting along with everything else we did to our course during our shutdown, but it's really come in. So they're not quite sure how it's go to come out of the -- you can probably explain this a little better -- but is it going to launch or is it going to come out fast. Can you explain that?
ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I don't hit it in the rough, so I don't know.
DAN TOWRISS: GOAT.
ANNIKA SORENSTAM: In my dreams, yeah.
DAN DOYLE JR: But they said the rough is a little more challenging. You are correct, most of these ladies do not hit into the rough, but we worked it up over the summer so it is a little more challenging.
It's been a little wet. It was a wetter season than normal, so we're hoping we have a dry couple of days to dry it out to make it a little quicker.
But overall, the agronomy crew here did an outstanding job. They kind of circle this as the pinnacle point where the club has got to really shine.
I drove my dad around here today. He was blown away. He hadn't been on the course since we reopened and he's like, wow, this place is really a pretty golf course. He can be very critical, I can promise you that, but he was impressed with it, so that checked the box.
Q. Dan Towriss, this past weekend at the NASCAR Cup Series Championship, Michael McDowell's No. 71 Chevrolet was fully branded as The Annika driven by Gainbridge car. That's one of several things that you guys at Gainbridge have done not only with this tournament, but with the Doyle family, with Annika, in having this tournament be a crossover, introducing fans of other sports to this event. How important is that for you guys at Gainbridge to introduce -- to have crossovers like that, to introduce the LPGA Tour and the game's greatest players to other sports?
DAN TOWRISS: Yeah, it's really important to us. I think we don't have to have sponsorships that are just siloed to have, so we love to do the cross-promotion across motorsports, in some cases women's basketball. We've had Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, Lexi Hall last year. Michael's fire suit, if you haven't seen it, was dynamite. He's a great sport, by the way.
DAN DOYLE JR: The pants were something. I mean, the lower half that looked like golf pants, it was something.
DAN TOWRISS: It was fantastic, the whole 71 crew. We love the crossover, to be able to shine a spotlight so everybody knows what's happening at this golf course this week.
So with the NASCAR finale happening in Homestead, it was a great opportunity to do that. We love to do that. We've got a great team, Mike Nichols and others, that are able to create those cross-promotion events so that we're connecting all the things Gainbridge is doing and making sure everybody knows, hey, we're at the Pelican this week for The ANNIKA. It's going to be exciting.
Q. This is the seventh year of the tournament and fourth year for The ANNIKA. Congratulations to you both. The community and town of Belleair and County of Pinellas look forward to the next decade and beyond as a terrific success because it has a terrific impact on this area. My question is for Annika. Nelly Korda is on the precipice of history. She's one point away from getting into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Just amazing. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. My question for you is Nelly hasn't played since the Solheim Cup, if I'm correct. I'm curious, did you ever have a long break, and how did you prepare your game to come back to professional golf like she is today? I'm sure she's prepared, but I was curious about how you processed that with your game, if you had a layoff.
ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Yeah, if I know Nelly correctly, I'm sure she's prepared as much as she can be. She doesn't just show up and play. I'm not really sure why she hasn't played, but wherever she goes, she's a big name. She's a big draw. She's done well here in the past. We know she loves the golf course. She has played so well here so many times.
This is probably a good place for her to start before playing next week.
I echo what you said; just one point away, it's just a matter of when. It could be this week. Nelly has done so much for the game, No. 1 in the world, Player of the Year, there's a lot to her resume. I think we're excited she's here. She's somewhat of a local. When you're a Floridian we count them. It's great to have her here. I'm a big fan of Nelly's. I think she's done so much for the game, so hopefully she can continue to stay at the top.
Q. In asking the players, they say they prefer if it sits down a little bit rather than staying on top. It seems like your rough here is something that the players are not going to be pulling their hair out. The condition of this course is what I experienced having played once at Augusta. Is that a goal of yours, or is that something that maybe I'm the only person who ever noticed about how magnificently this course is really kept?
DAN DOYLE JR: I'll take that as a compliment. That's two different budgets, the Pelican Golf Club to Augusta, but I do take it as a compliment. We did try to mimic some of the look. The Pelican has got its own features, but it does have a little bit of a Georgia golf course look.
The rough that's -- I don't think the ladies like it because it rides up on the club; is that correct? See, my golf knowledge.
ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Yeah, you got it.
DAN DOYLE JR: Unfortunately when I hit it into the rough it actually sinks and then I can't find it. But I think it's -- the overall, we just want it to look pristine. That's the look. I think Augusta accomplishes that. So we'll strive to look like that.
I don't think we'll ever achieve what they have, but we will strive to look like that.
Q. Dan Doyle, you mentioned seven years ago you didn't expect to be where you are now. What did you expect in 2019 and 2020?
DAN DOYLE JR: To be honest, I had no idea. We pitched the LPGA. This was a pile of dirt. I was shocked they even said yes, we'll host a golf tournament here. We expected it to have some legs. Did I expect Annika to be involved in it? No. Did I expect Dan Towriss to come and get involved in it? No.
Those are just achievements. Those are blocks that we hit. I always wanted it to be a great golf tournament. As you just heard, we won an award last year as the best host. I think my team deserves all the credit in the world for that. We do talk to the players. We survey the players on our own not through the LPGA to find out what we can change, what we can do to make this more appealing to them. We did learn that some of the ladies at certain venues don't get treated properly or they're not as welcome.
I'll tell you, our membership here welcomes this golf tournament. They're excited. If you look at who volunteers, I'll tell you 80 percent of our membership volunteers for this tournament year in, year out. We're in year seven, so you figure the newness would wear off and it doesn't. Everybody gets excited about it.
The town of Belleair, they might have been a little hesitant at first on us hosting this event because the streets get clogged and things like that. I'll tell you now it's a focal point for them. They love to talk about it. So I didn't think the residents would get behind it as much as they did and they have.
I knew my team would rise to the occasion and push us to make it even greater, but I didn't think it would be as big as it was. I mean, last year it was crazy. Your pro-am group, if you remember, you had a following that was -- it was Happy Gilmore. People were climbing through bushes to watch your group.
I mean, I never expected something like that. It was fun to see. I felt bad for Dan because these people they swarmed you guys.
DAN TOWRISS: Yeah, it was an exciting day. What can we say with that group that we had.
DAN DOYLE JR: But I think we've gotten to a point, but of course my two boys are in the back and they're going to tell us next year we have to do this and this and this, so it's kind of fun.
Q. Did the waves start to build before Annika signed on as the namesake?
DAN DOYLE JR: You've got to remember, the first year we hosted this was COVID, so it was bizarre. It was like a private members' golf tournament which was an unusual feeling.
The year after that we didn't really know -- I'm going to say we scratch that one. We didn't know what to expect. After we said this was fun and the members said this was the best party ever and then we got some legs behind it and got it going, it wasn't quite to the element where I was really pleased.
I mean, I'm a competitive person. Probably not as competitive as Dan. Dan's got race cars going all the world. He's very competitive. But I looked at the other tournaments and I said, all right, how are they beating us and was it prize money? Dan helped out tremendously. Was it the venue? I've looked at it and said, we're going to have the best venue. Then how do we take care of the athletes, the ladies?
It's just a very competitive nature and how do we rise to it. To have two extremely competitive people as partners really helps a lot.
Q. For Annika, going to Nelly being on the precipice of the Hall of Fame, when you got within one point of the Hall of Fame, did that change how you approached things? Did it play in the back of your mind? I haven't looked it up; how many starts did you need to knock off the final point?
ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I haven't looked it up either, and I don't remember. I don't remember when I had one point to go. There's different Hall of Fames. You've got the LPGA and then you've got the World Golf Hall of Fame. I was inducted in 2003, so I guess I got the points before that.
That never really drove me to play better. That wasn't my mission to come out here and be part of that. I think that was a byproduct and something I still feel like, oh, that's crazy that I'm part of this elite group.
No, that didn't drive me or anything like that, didn't really motivate me. But it was certainly a beautiful thing that came along with playing well. I'm not sure what other players say about that, but that was not really what made me try to reach my full potential.
Q. I think in 2003 you were still clocking off wins one after the other too.
ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I kept going. I kept trying, yeah.
Q. For Dan Doyle, the town has really seemed to embrace this event where you know at the beginning that wasn't the case. I've mentioned to Annika and Jeremy and the staff that a lot of it has to do with you guys addressing every issue that has come up over the years, not just the play on the course or the field. Talk about how important that was, to be a good steward of the community to make this tournament fit here in Belleair like it has.
DAN DOYLE JR: So the COVID year was easy. Again, it was light. The second year, that's when the neighborhood went, hey, what's going on with traffic and things?
So we would look at ways -- we had two Town Halls where we brought people in and asked them for suggestions. We actually had a committee formed that was a non-membered committee, more resident committee, there were some members on it, to help kind of bring up anything to the surface, what people liked, what people didn't like.
They get a little annoyed that we close the street over here, but people have now adjusted to it. We do give tickets to every resident that's on the golf course to make sure that they feel welcome. They're watching it from their backyard, but we'd rather them come on the grounds and really see it. We've tried to address all of them.
The town gave me a little flak in the beginning. They weren't quite sure what was going to happen. I can promise you they didn't expect the event would become as big as it became. But now they've embraced it.
I'm glad we're over that hurdle. There's always one person or neighbor that will be negative and I bet you we can find that about any event anywhere, but we'll meet with them. I'm happy to meet with them. The Outlyr Group will meet with them and we'll try to resolve any issue.
Some of them are a little crazy and we can't resolve, but for the most part we try to be a good steward.
Q. As it's gotten bigger the reception to it has actually gotten better, which is kind of unusual. Usually events gets bigger and the animosity or the pushback grows but it's been the inverse here.
DAN DOYLE JR: I can tell you year two or year three we would go to the Town Hall meeting, Belleair is three square miles, so you know everybody. But you'd show up at the Town Hall meeting and people that would get up for their two minutes of free mic time and tell us what we did wrong.
You take it. You just take constructive criticism.
For the last three years I will tell you nobody shows up. Nobody -- the funny thing is I wish they would show up and say thanks, but they don't do that. I can live with that. We'd rather have the no-shows. We take it as a compliment that, okay, everything is running smooth.
Q. Annika, how was the trip to the race, and what were your thoughts? I believe it was your first NASCAR race.
ANNIKA SORENSTAM: It was fun, yeah. I've been to the Daytona 500 but I didn't have this experience where you literally get to meet the driver and the pit crew. I got a big lesson how it all works.
It was fun. We were right there. Thank you to Gainbridge.
Again, can I just echo how good they are for sports and women's sports. They're just fantastic. I love the cross-promotion. It's fun to have the driver here. Michael McDowell -- is he caddying for you or he's in your group, I think, isn't he?
DAN TOWRISS: He's like an honorary caddie.
ANNIKA SORENSTAM: Okay. But I think it's great for the LPGA to be part of being in the NASCAR scene because they have so many wonderful fans.
But yeah, we were spending a lot of time talking to the crew. They explained all kinds of things. Then obviously when it was time for the race, sitting right there, I don't know all the right terminology, but sitting with the headset and listening to the coordination between the driver and the staff and watching the quick turnaround, it was just really fascinating.
I love the speed. It's crazy how fast they go. But I think just to top it off was the car. Did you guys see the car? It was amazing. The driver's outfit, of course. But to have all the players' names and just have Gainbridge there and The ANNIKA, it was really cool. I don't know if we'll see that again, but we took a lot of photos and we're going to frame them for sure.
Q. This is such a jewel to have here on the Pinellas Sun Coast, this tournament. This week is Veterans Day and you've made it so accessible to the community. Was that something that just came about? And with Veterans Day and veterans and first responders and such you're making it so open to the community, that was the plan all along?
DAN DOYLE JR: I'd love to tell you yes, but no, it kind of grew. The intention was always to -- the number one focus was actually women's golf and to get women involved and women engaged. If you come out here on Saturday for Annika's clinics, it's unbelievable to see how many young ladies are out here and actually there's boys as well. You don't discriminate.
But to see all the young kids out here to take the clinic. She's got kids all over the place and Annika does a great job. I've watched her bounce around and make sure each child feels like they have a little one-on-one with her. That was always the number one intention.
The byproduct being on veterans, that's great. That's tomorrow, so they'll have a big thing out here by the flag. Then we do have a big hospitality area for them on hole 12 which is an exciting hole. We used to give away Lamborghinis. Most of the players didn't take them. Not a lot of truck space for golf clubs. So we moved it to a Mercedes G Wagon. I saw it's an AMG G Wagon, so I'm sure they'll take us up on that. We've given away four Lamborghinis over the time. Most of them take the cash honestly because of the trunk space. This answered that question.
But it's a great hospitality area. It's a big ooh-and-ahh hole, because if you don't get the ball in the right spot ball the ball actually does end up in the water. It rolls back. So taking care of them, I mean, hey, the first responders and our veterans have taken care of us. They make it so we can sleep at night and we're comfortable and we feel secure. So to do that for them, that was easy.
Q. You talked about children 17 and under get in free, the kids, and the give back. This tournament benefits The ANNIKA Foundation. Dan Towriss, one of the bigger things that you guys do at all the events that you do is you come up with -- help to come up with initiatives to give back to the community. One of the things that this tournament is doing here is a program called Kicks for Causes. You and Annika are wearing special shoes tomorrow for the pro-am, the second year of this. Programs like that -- Dan, you talked to one of the patients last year, programs like that where it introduces young kids -- and these are Advent Health patients that are going to be out here. How special is it that this tournament is more than inside the ropes and more than just birdies, pars and bogeys?
DAN TOWRISS: It's an incredible opportunity. It was such a privilege to meet the artist who worked on my shoes last year. These kids are absolute inspirations with what they're going through, but also just the connection. I mean, I think you see the look on the parents' face and you're down talking with the child about the shoes and what they were thinking about and just creating that excitement. It's an incredible opportunity.
The golf is very important. This is a tournament that means a lot to the players, but it's also more than that. It's what it means to the community, and to bring others in and create those moments, those special connections, we love to do things like that. It's super important.
Again, even for me personally, those kids are an absolute inspiration.
DAN DOYLE JR: I mean, to Dan's point, it's an inspiration to watch these kids. They're having a bad enough time right now going through some medical. A lot of them are cancer and things like that. They're battling. This gives them some limelight. It's a project for them to do to paint these shoes, and I think they're overwhelmed when they see actual players -- whether they want to call us players or not, players wearing their shoes on the course.
It's like a goal and an accomplishment for them. It gives them a little bright spot in their day, and then they get the shoes back, which I don't know if I'd want the shoes, but they get the shoes back. Danny always fights to keep the shoes, but they get the shoes back.
Come on, how do you beat it, if Annika was wearing a pair of shoes that you made.
ANNIKA SORENSTAM: I mean, well said. I'll echo what they said. I think we feel very fortunate where we are, so therefore to be able to share with these young kids and the stories, it just creates some fun memories together. I think golf in general is a sport we like to give back and help others and also the storytelling about these young kids and what they're going through.
I haven't seen the shoe I'm going to wear. I look forward to it. But last year was incredible.
But the artist in them, and for them to be able to express themself and then be able to share that, it's pretty neat. I love these little different initiatives that may be small for some but big for others, so I look forward to wearing them tomorrow.
JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Annika Sorenstam, Dan Towriss, Dan Doyle, thank you so much for all you do not only for this event but for the LPGA Tour and sports in general. Let's have a fantastic The ANNIKA week.
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