At a Tampa Bay Rays game against Oakland this week, the baseball itself was almost secondary to me.
As a lifelong Yankees fan, I arrived at Tropicana Field without a rooting interest in either dugout. I was there at the invitation of a friend connected to The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, Tampa Bay’s annual LPGA Tour event, scheduled for November 9–15 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair.
The game provided a fitting stage to promote a tournament that is increasingly thinking beyond golf’s customary market boundaries. The ANNIKA is not simply trying to sell tickets for four days of birdies and bogeys. Under the leadership of tournament director Ryan Dever, it is working to connect golf with the broader sports community, women’s sports, charitable impact, and a new generation of fans.
That vision was evident.
Left to right: Melanie Green, Brett Phillips and George McNeilly
LPGA rookie Melanie Green, a Tampa Bay resident and 2024 University of South Florida graduate, was invited to throw the ceremonial first pitch. Green is a rising talent with an accomplished golf résumé, but she had yet to establish her reputation on a baseball diamond.
Still, she showed little concern to me before taking the mound.
“I’m going to practice a little bit before it happens because, you know, I don’t want to look like a fool, but no, I’m not nervous,” Green said. “Yeah, there’s a ball. I’m not worried.”
For anyone who has watched a public figure’s ceremonial pitch sail into the dirt, fly wide of the plate, or nearly reach the first-base dugout, that calm sounded a little ambitious. Politicians, business executives, entertainers, and athletes from other sports have all found that a short throw from a major-league mound can feel much longer when a stadium full of people is watching.
Green, however, did not overcomplicate it. She delivered a crisp pitch to Rays reliever Ty Johnson at home plate.
No, it wasn’t Babe Ruth’s storied 1926 World Series performance—when Ruth promised an ailing Johnny Sylvester he would hit a home run, then hit three in Game 4 against the St. Louis Cardinals—but it was a hometown athlete meeting a moment with grace and composure.
Former Rays outfielder Brett Phillips, known for bringing his own joy and energy to the game, offered one of the most fitting assessments of Green’s performance.
“She rose to the occasion.” Phillips went further, telling me in front of Green that her success reflected more than a strong arm. A professional golfer is accustomed to performing alone, with every decision and shot exposed to scrutiny. There are no teammates to hide behind, no substitutions, and no way to escape the pressure.
That’s the kind of mental discipline she brought to the Epson Tour in 2025, where she quickly established herself as one of its leading players.
She won twice and recorded 10 top-10 finishes in 19 starts. By season’s end, Green finished first in the Epson Tour Race for the Card standings and earned both the 2025 Epson Tour Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors. Those achievements secured her full LPGA Tour membership for the 2026 season.
Green has already recorded two top-10 finishes in her inaugural LPGA quest, and her continuing campaign will soon include a matchup against World No. 1 Nelly Korda, a three-time winner of this event. Defending champion Linn Grant and major champions Lydia Ko and Brooke Henderson have also been named among the early commitments.
The Rays’ partnership gave Green and The ANNIKA an audience beyond traditional golf fans. That is exactly the kind of crossover Dever believes can strengthen the tournament’s long-term impact.
He described the organizing philosophy for this year’s event as a unified effort among Gainbridge, Pelican Golf Club, and his tournament staff.
“We’re all beating to the same drum,” Dever said. “I think the vision is unified between those three parties.”
That alignment, he explained, extends to every part of the event: the player, volunteer, spectator, and partner experiences. But the larger goal is not limited to delivering an excellent tournament week.
“One of our main taglines is lead with legacy,” Dever said. “And that starts from vision and mission, and there’s complete buy-in from the entire system.”
The phrase is more than marketing speak. It expresses an ambition to leave Tampa Bay a little better than it was before the tournament arrived—to create lasting effects that endure after the final putt and the temporary grandstands are taken down.
For Dever and his partners, that means collaboration. Locally, it includes relationships with organizations such as the Rays, the NHL’s Lightning, and Visit St. Pete/Clearwater. Nationally, it now also includes a partnership with Spire Motorsports and driver Michael McDowell ahead of the NASCAR race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, when The ANNIKA, driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, will appear on the hood of McDowell’s Chevy Camaro.
Those partnerships put The ANNIKA in conversations where an LPGA event might not traditionally be present and add value for title sponsor Gainbridge, a digital-first, direct-to-consumer insurance and financial platform. They create opportunities to reach baseball and racing fans, families, civic leaders, visitors, and people who may be encountering women’s professional golf for the first time.
“There’s something bigger here,” Dever said. “Not just 18 holes and a week-long work with golf, but how do we grow the game, provide impact to women’s sports, make this more accessible.”
The $3.25 million purse ranks among the LPGA Tour’s largest outside its majors.
