Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit made an eagle a the par-3 1st hole and remained bogey-free for a final-round 65 in modified four-ball format to win the Grant Thornton Invitational.
“Great way to end the year before Christmas,” said Knapp. “I feel like in an event like this you never really know what your partner’s going to be like when you haven’t met ’em before and I feel like I couldn’t have gotten a better partner. I feel like we just got along perfectly energy was the same. It was a really, really fun week.
“Kind of an inside joke between my caddie and I is like not really out there to have fun in my opinion. I treat it very much like a job and it’s like winning is fun. So I try to go out there and play the best I can. It’s not that I’m not trying to enjoy myself by any means, but I take golf very seriously and I expect a lot of myself.
“So a week like this felt a little bit on the opposite end of the spectrum, like let’s just make sure we enjoy it. Don’t get to do this very often. It’s the first time meeting each other. You also just don’t want to give off that bad energy for your teammate. If you hit a bad shot, whatever it is.
“Even when I hit a bad one, she was the first one patting me on the back. So it just made it very, very easy even when you’re making some mistakes and whatnot, just carry on and go about your business.”
At 27-under 189, they set a new tournament scoring record previously held by 2023 champions Lydia Ko/Jason Day (190).
Tavatanakit and Knapp were the only team in the field with both players having won on their respective Tour this season. Knapp’s rookie season was highlighted by a win at the 2024 Mexico Open at VidantaWorld while Tavatanakit won the 2024 Honda LPGA Thailand. She is one of six LPGA Tour players in the field with wins this season. Knapp finished No. 64 in the FedExCup Fall standings after qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs in his rookie season.
“It was nice to put the cherry on top of my 2024 season to win my last event of the year. It’s definitely going to be a nice feeling to take some time off,” said Tavatanakit.
“And to be able to do it alongside Jake, it’s just been so fun and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner.”
Tom Kim and Jeeno Thitikul closed with a bogey-free 64 to finish second at 26-under.
Jennifer Kupcho and Akshay Bhatia made an eagle at the par-5 17th but bogeyed the 18th for a 64 and finished third at 25-under.
Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners eagled the par-4 10th and stayed bogey-free for a 62 to take fourth place at 24-under ahead of Céline Boutier and Matthieu Pavon who shot a bogey-free 65 and finished fifth at 21-under.
Defending champions Jason Day and Lydia Ko finished in sixth place seven strokes behind Knapp and Tavatanakit.
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Format: Three-round 54-hole stroke-play event with 16 teams of two. R1/Scramble, R2/Foursomes, R3/Modified Four-Ball.
Modified Four-Ball: Both players tee off. They then switch balls for their second shots and play that same ball until it is holed. The
lower score of the partners is then counted as the team score for the hole.
