NAPLES, Florida – With the Holiday Season in full swing In southwest Florida, 16 mixed teams of players from the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour came together at the impressive Tiburon Golf Club this weekend at the 2nd annual Grant Thornton Invitational.
Teams competed for a $4 million purse with the winners splitting $1 million. The weekend included three rounds with three different formats; scramble, foursomes and modified four-ball.
Day 1 (Scramble)
Friday’s weather was bright and sunny with sustained 10-20 mph winds throughout the day. The 7,382 yards Gold Course played relatively easy which produced some low scores especially from the later starting twosomes.
Finishing in 1st place on Day 1 were Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit at -14 (27-31-58)
“I knew 9 under wasn’t going to be a bad score after nine holes,” said Knapp in his post-round interview. “But a couple pars to start off the back nine, it was like OK, let’s make sure we try to keep giving ourselves opportunities, and to be able to finish eagle-birdie like that’s always pretty nice.”
“We didn’t talk about it,” added Tavatanakit. “Like I just realized on 7 that we’ve been birdieing every single hole. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t really thought about it.”
Two teams tied for 2nd place with 59’s. Jennifer Kupcho / Akshay Bhatia -13 (30-29-59) and Brooke Henderson / Corey Conners -13 (29- 30- 59)
Day 2 (Alternate Shot)
The second day format had each team’s players alternating shots with the same ball until the ball is holed. One player teed off on the odd-numbered holes, and the other teed off on the even-numbered holes. This format is the most difficult of the three formats. Added to that difficulty was a day of scattered showers accompanied by sustained 13-18 mph winds, with gusts to 27 mph.
Staying in 1st place were Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit at -6 (58-66-124)
When asked about the difficulties of today’s round Jake said, “The first nine holes were just brutal with how much wind there was, rain, everything else. She (Patty) did a great job of keeping me positive.”
“I feel like it’s just a mindset of like, you know what, we’ll just go play what’s in front of us. I kept telling Jake front nine, like just bomb it, hit it, send it, like I can hit it from anywhere.” Said Patty
2nd place finishers were Jeeno Thitikul/Tom Kim -18 (72-64-126)
Day 3 (Modified Four-ball)
The wire-to-wire winners: Patty Tavatanakit and Jake Knapp with a 33-32 -7 (58-66-65 -189)
This one came down to the tough back nine when Patty Tavatanakit hit a tough curving 23-foot putt on the 16th followed by Jake Knapp’s well placed chip shot for another birdie on the 17th, a tap in on the last hole for a par gave them exactly what they needed to walk off the 18th green on Sunday with a 7-under 65 for a one-shot victory.
Their -27 (189), set the tournament scoring record previously held by 2023 Champions Lydia Ko and Jason Day (190). They split $1 million and the received the Grant Thornton Trophy.
Jeeno Thitikul is no stranger to the 18th hole at Tiburon Golf Club after winning the LPGA 2024 CME Group Tour Championship last month, for the $4 million prize, with a birdie putt on the same 18th hole. She holed another 8-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole Sunday as she and Tom Kim shot 64 to finish 2nd. They split $560,000.
Akshay Bhatia and Jennifer Kupcho posted their lone bogey on the 18th hole to finish third. They split $330,000.
The final day of “Silly Golf Weekend,” as labeled by some golfing purest, seemed to be a well thought out competition that brought together PGA and LPGA players for a special weekend of playing the “Grand Old Game.” This weekend offered a variety of formats that challenged participants. It was never a gender issue; it was strictly 32 golfers playing their hearts out and having fun together. Nothing silly about that!
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