Charley Hull and Michael Brennan fired eagles at the par-5s 6th and 14th as well as thirteen birdies for a bogey-free, 17-under 55 and are tied for the lead at the Grant Thornton Invitational.
Hull finished No. 14 in the LPGA’s season-long standings, second only to Nelly Korda (No. 5) among players in the field. She picked up her third LPGA title at the 2025 Kroger Queen City Championship.
“I feel like our games gelled together really well, and coming in on like the last few stretch of holes I felt like we had 20 under like we played so well,” said Hull.
Brennan won the 2025 Bank of Utah Championship during his PGA Tour Rookie season and finished No. 98 in the FedExCup Fall standings.
“Charley played amazing. I was really playing poorly the last couple days and I was worried last night. I was like, man, we might make some bogeys out there today. I hit a couple squirrely tee balls early, but then Charley was just so solid, made a couple huge putts early in the round and we just kind of got rolling from there,” added Brennan.
Lexi Thompson and Wyndham Clark eagled the par-5 6th and par-4 10th and also made thirteen birdies and stayed bogey-free for a share of the lead.
Thompson has had two top-five finishes this season, highlighted by a runner-up finish with teammate Megan Khang at the Dow Championship (the LPGA’s lone team event).
“I feel like we ham-and-egged it pretty well out there. He played some amazing golf and holed out a bunker shot and stuck it close on a few holes. We really just fed off each other,” said Thompson.
Clark had two top-10 finishes in 24 starts on the PGA Tour (T4/The Open Championship, T5/Texas Children’s Houston Open) en route to a No. 65 finish in the FedExCup Fall standings.
“I feel like we kind of have similar games to be honest,” said Clark. “She hits it really far off the tee, and if one of us is in play, we’re significantly past kind of the competitors and we have our advantage there. She’s a great putter. Yeah, I mean, really I felt like our games complement each other perfectly and I didn’t think there was any flaws in her game. Yeah, we had a lot of fun out there.”
17-under 55 is a new record for the Grant Thornton Invitational, the previous record of 56 held by Nelly Korda and Tony Finau in the first round in 2023.
Lauren Coughlin and Andrew Novak stayed bogey-free and carded fifteen birdies to lie in solo third place.
Rose Zhang and Michael Kim eagled the par-5 1st and 17th and added ten birdies for a share of fourth place at 14-under alongside Jennifer Kupcho and Chris Gotterup who tied the event’s best birdie streak with 10 in a row from the first as well as Nelly Korda and Denny McCarthy who also eagled the 1st and 17th. All three teams stayed bogey-free.
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The Grant Thornton Invitational is a three-round 54-hole stroke-play event with 16 teams of two. R1/Scramble, R2/Foursomes, R3/Modified Four-Ball.
It is a mixed team event featuring players from the PGA and LPGA Tours.
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| Pos. | Player | To Par | R1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | Hull / Brennan | -17 | 55 |
| T1 | Thompson / Clark | -17 | 55 |
| 3 | Coughlin / Novak | -15 | 57 |
| T4 | Zhang / Kim | -14 | 58 |
| T4 | Kupcho / Gotterup | -14 | 58 |
| T4 | Korda / McCarthy | -14 | 58 |
| 7 | Tavatanakit / Knapp | -13 | 59 |
| T8 | Yin / Hoge | -12 | 60 |
| T8 | Ko / Day | -12 | 60 |
| T10 | Lee / Horschel | -11 | 61 |
| T10 | Henderson / Conners | -11 | 61 |
| T10 | Vu / Finau | -11 | 61 |
| T13 | Stark / Shipley | -10 | 62 |
| T13 | Korda / Cauley | -10 | 62 |
| 15 | Woad / Clanton | -9 | 63 |
| 16 | Khang / Mitchell | -8 | 64 |
