Grant Thornton Invitational Preview

Grant Thornton Invitational:

A $20,000 first place prize is enough to get a few people to play, even me, even if it is just a 16-team mixed event. Though, it is a disappointing nudge down from last year’s $50,000 prize pool. Regardless, it is one less week that we will be without action until The Sentry returns after the 1^st of the year. Throw a line in or two and see what happens, you never know. Shall we kick the tires a little and see what we can do?

For the unaware, this event under its former incarnation was known as the QBE Shootout. Originally this event began in 1989, was renamed a few times, bounced around a couple of venues, and settled into Tiburon Golf Course in Naples on the Gold Course designed by Greg Norman in 2001.

The course is also the host of the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. This year’s event was won by Jeeno Thitikul at -22 under par.

We embark this year on the 2^nd year of the reimagined format involving 16 teams compromised of one member from the PGA and LPGA Tours. It is a 54-hole event with 3 distinct and separate rounds. The first round consists of a scramble and is straight forward. The second round is an alternate shot (Foursomes) format. The final round on Sunday is new and unique to the event. In the “Modified Four-Ball” for Sunday, both players will tee off, and then they will switch balls for their second shot and play that ball until holed. Certainly, I think Sunday will be worth watching just to see how it all plays out and what kind of effect the switch may or may not have. I did find it worth the watch last year.

The men will play from 7,382 yards from the tees while the LPGA members will play from 6,595 yards.

Water comes into play on 13 holes across the course. Unique to the course and Florida surroundings the course features coquina shell waste areas instead of conventional rough. The course features 50 bunkers across the 18 holes that have been reconstructed and reconditioned within the past years to now feature sod bunker walls. The Bermuda Greens are large, tiered and undulating of average speed. Shorter hitters off-the-tee should find the course more to their liking as accuracy, creativity, and an above average short game should be helpful.

Teams I Like: No, you cannot make a single bullet entry from these. (LPGA-Leaning):

Jeeno Thitikul w/ Tom Kim – ($10,500): Thitikul finished the past season ranked 4^th in the Race to the CME Globe but took home the season ending CME Group Tour Championship held right here on this course 3 weeks ago. Finished the current LPGA Season with 15 made cuts out of 17 starts, with 2 wins, and 10 additional T-10 or better finishes. Finished the regular season ranked 1/GIR, 1/Scoring Avg, 1/Birdie to Bogey Ratio, 31/DD, and 1/Putts per GIR. A dominate season. Tom Kim has not played much since the Olympics with just 5 starts, but he has runner-up finishes at the Genesis Championship on the DP World Tour and last week’s Hero World Challenge on the PGA Tour among them. The youngest team in the field with both players under 22 and perhaps the deserving favorites in the field, but a steal at only the 2^nd highest salary.

Brooke Henderson w/ Corey Conners – ($9,700): An all-Canadian pairing that represented Canada at this year’s Olympics and finished runner-up in last year’s event by a single stroke. Henderson finished the year ranked 13^th in the Race to the CME Globe and finished T-8 at the CME Group Tour Championship at -13 under. She made 22 of her 24 cuts this season, with 9 of the 24 resulting in T-10 or better finishes. Finished the regular season ranked 9/GIR, 19/Scoring Avg, 18/Birdie to Bogey Ratio, 53/DD, and 117/Putts per GIR. A quieter season than you would expect but still top notch and among the better ones across the league. Conners has played just twice since the completion of the PGA Tour Season but has finished inside the Top 7 in both events, including last week’s Nedbank Golf Challenge on the DP World Tour.

Maya Stark w/ J.T. Poston – ($8,000): Stark is currently one of the premier woman golfers from Sweden and celebrated her 25^th birthday this week as well. She won 6 times on the LET (Ladies European Tour) within an 18-month span from the fall of 2021 to early 2023. She finished the regular season ranked 18^th in the Race to the CME Globe, but a disappointing T49 at the CME Group Tour Championship. She finished the regular season with 16 cuts made in 21 starts and with 4 T-10 or better finishes among the 16. Finished the regular season ranked 75/GIR, 67/Scoring Avg, 90/Birdie to Bogey Ratio, 50/DD, and 95/Putts per GIR. Poston, like the others, has not played much this fall, but he has played remarkably well. He won the Shriners in October off a 2-month layoff and followed that up a T-5 finish at the RSM Classic 3 weeks ago in the PGA’s last official event of the season. Seems like an interesting pair that could complement each other well here.

Celine Boutier w/ Matthieu Pavon – ($7,700): Boutier played in last year’s event with Harris English and finished 12^th. A surprising result considering that English had won the prior incarnation of the event 3 times and finished runner-up twice more. Boutier followed up last season’s breakout of 4 wins with a 22 of 24 made cuts campaign this year with no additional wins this year, but 4 additional T-10 or better finishes among the 22 made cuts. She finished the regular season ranked 15^th in the Race to the CME Globe and finished it off with a T-12 finish in the CME Group Tour Championship. Ended her season with ranks of 27/GIR, 17/Scoring Avg, 20/Birdie to Bogey Ratio, 101/DD, and 30/Putts per GIR. The best thing you can see about Pavon of late is that he has been consistently playing golf. He went back to Europe for 4 events after the conclusion of the PGA Tour season and finished T-17 in last week’s Hero World Challenge on the PGA Tour. Where his irons were thriving on the PGA Tour during his successes early last season, they collapsed during the 2^nd half of the season. With the format here, he is more than capable of surprising a few of these pairings in the field.

Megan Khang w/ Matt Kuchar – ($7,000): Khang finished 24^th in this past season’s Race to the CME Globe and concluded it with a T-22 finished the CME Group Tour Championship. During her 22-start season, she made 16 cuts with 5 of the 16 resulting in T-10 or better finishes. Khang won her first event on the LPGA Tour last season at the CPKC Women’s Open. Finished the regular season ranked 15/GIR, 23/Scoring Avg, 39/Birdie to Bogey Ratio, 111/DD, and 95/Putts Per GIR. Khang finished T-4 with Denny McCarthy in last year’s event here on the course. Khang returns this year with a new partner in Matt Kuchar who happened to win here 3 times under the event’s prior incarnation with Harris English. Kuchar has made 9 of 13 cuts since the start of June and was found playing consistently throughout the fall. He secured 2 T-15 finishes at the Procore and Shriners during the fall swing.

Lilia Vu w/ Luke List – ($6,500): Vu returns this year to the event with a new partner after finishing T-9 last year with Joel Dahmen. Vu finished the regular season ranked 11^th in the Race to the CME Globe and concluded it with a T-40 finish at the CME Group Tour Championship. She followed up last season’s 4-win (with 2 of them majors) campaign, with a victory this season at the Meijer LPGA Classic, as she made the cut in 16 of her 18 starts. She concluded her season with ranks of 20/GIR, 13/Scoring Avg, 14/Birdie to Bogey Ratio, 107/DD, and 30/Putts per GIR. An ugly season for the 2-time PGA Winner in List, as he missed 15 of the 29 events he played in last season. Optimistically, he played in 6 events during the Fall Swing and made the cut in 4 of them with the highlight being a T-16 at the Zozo Championship.

 

That is, it from here. Go win some holiday spending money! Stay connected and let me know how you do! Here is hoping to see some of you on the leaderboards.

–Nik (@MrGuruNick)