Mixed Gender Tournament Grant Thornton Invitational Opens
32 Players Including 16 Men and 16 Women Compete Over Three Days
Scramble, Foursome, and Modified Four-Ball Formats Adopted
A unique mixed-gender showdown is set to take place.
From the 8th (local time) for three days, the Grant Thornton Invitational will be held at the Gold Course (par 72) of Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, USA. This is a distinctive golf tournament where star players from the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour team up to compete. It is a mixed-gender event revived for the first time in 24 years since the 1999 JC Penney Classic. It is being held for the first time this year, replacing the two-person team competition QBE Shootout held until last year.
Tony Finau (right) and Nelly Korda team up to challenge for the title at the mixed-gender Grant Thornton Invitational. [Photo by PGA]
Sixteen PGA Tour players and sixteen LPGA Tour players form pairs to compete over three days for a total prize money of $4 million (approximately 5.26 billion KRW). The participating players are the best golfers who have combined for 25 wins this year and 141 wins in total. Eleven of them have major championship victories.
Strong favorites for the title include Tony Finau-Nelly Korda, Rickie Fowler-Lexi Thompson, Joel Dahmen-Lilia Vu, and Sahith Theegala-Rose Zhang (all from the USA). Jason Day (Australia)-Lydia Ko (New Zealand), Ludvig ?berg-Madelen Saxstr?m (both from Sweden), and Corey Conners-Brooke Henderson (both from Canada) also team up. There are no Korean players participating.
The tournament format is unique. On the first day, players each hit a shot, and then choose one of the two balls to play the next shot from that spot in a scramble format. On the second day, they alternate hitting the same ball in a foursomes format. On the final day, after each player tees off, they switch balls for the second shot in a modified four-ball format.
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