Grant Thornton Invitational: Tavatanakit & Knapp lead mixed PGA/LPGA Tour event
Patty Tavatanakit and Jake Knapp shot 6-under 66 in Sunday’s final round of the Grant Thornton Invitational in Naples, Fla. Leading by two strokes.
They totaled seven birdies and one bogey to improve to 20 under in the mixed PGA and LPGA Tour event in the alternate shot format.
They finished ahead of Atthaya Thitikul and Tom Kim, who shot 64 to jump onto the leaderboard and finish at 18 under.
Jennifer Kupcho made a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole as she and Akshay Bhatia shot 68 and will start the final third round at 17 under.
Tawatanakit and Knapp opened the session at 58 on Friday, with both players hitting the ball before the team chose the ball to use for the next at-bat. From there, both players make their next shot from that position, and the process continues until the ball goes into the hole.
They continued to impress in Saturday’s foursomes at Tiburon Golf Club, chasing the $1 million first prize.
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and Australia’s Jason Day won the inaugural 2023 tournament, shooting 5-under 67 to finish at 15-under was 5 strokes behind.
The third round will feature a new team competition format. In Modified Four Ball, both players will tee off, then they will switch balls for a second shot and play that ball until it is holed. The lower score will count as a team score.
