NAPLES, Florida – Just when you thought golf might be losing its mojo, along comes a tournament called The Grant Thornton Invitational featuring two tours in one competition – matching up one LPGA Tour player with a PGA Tour player playing for a purse of $4 million.
Only 16 teams are here with one winning team ready to split the $1 million first-place check after three days on as testy Tiburon Golf Club of scramble, alternate shot and better ball.
DYNAMIC DUO
Patty Tavatanakit and Jake Knapp (20 under), who led after the first round, are still atop the leaderboard at the Grant Thornton Invitational after a second-round 6-under 66 at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. They hold a two-shot lead over Jeeno Thitikul and Tom Kim (18 under), who shot the round of the day of 8-under 64.
“The first nine holes were just brutal with how much wind there was, rain, everything else,” said Knapp in the post round interview. “Jeeno did a great job of keeping me positive. I think we just did a good job of kind of following up bad shots with good shots and we were able to just grind it out.”
While most of the men in this field marvel at how straight their partners hit it, Tavatanakit, one of the longest players on the LPGA, kept telling Knapp to bomb it and not worry where it goes, she can hit it from anywhere.
“Because I’m the same way, my game is wild as well,” she said, “so don’t worry if it’s out of position, I know how to make pars.”
The Sunday final round format will consist of modified four-ball.
SUNDAY TEE TIMES
8:40 a.m. Thompson/Fowler and Ruffels/Dunlap
8:55 a.m. Vu/List and Khang/Kuchar
9:10 a.m. Stark/Poston and Reid/Champ
9:25 a.m. Corpuz/Theegala and Korda/Berger
9:40 a.m. Henderson/Conners and Coughlin/Young
9:55 a.m. Lee/Greyserman and Boutier/Pavon
10:10 a.m. Kupcho/Bhatia and Ko/Day
10:25 a.m. Tavatanakit/Knapp and Thitikul/Kim
HOW TO WATCH
Golf Channel, NBC and Peacock will have live coverage. Golf Channel and NBC are here for you to enjoy televised coverage of Sunday’s final round.
1-2 p.m. Golf Channel/NBC Sports app
2-4 p.m. NBC/Peacock/NBC Sports app
https://www.lpga.com/tournaments/grant-thornton-invitational/leaderboard
Leave a Reply