Jason Day and Lydia Ko started the day with a one-stroke lead and made six birdies to close with a 66 in the modified fourball format to win the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational by one shot at 26-under.
“At the end of the day, sometimes there’s a separation between the PGA TOUR, the LPGA Tour and other tours,” said Ko. “But we’re all playing the game of golf. We all play it because we love it. It has given us so many great opportunities and experiences. I think this is just a great example that we’re all just golfers at the end of the day and trying to play the best golf we can and perform at our highest. I think this is just the start of that. Whether it’s another event or something like — I don’t know, there’s a lot more people that’s smarter than me that can come up with great ideas like this, but I think this is just a gateway and a reminder that we’re all here for the game of golf, and I believe that a lot of people are going to take inspiration and get motivated by watching this week.”
“Walking away from this week, I think it’s been a huge success,” added Day. “I think a lot of the guys have had a lot of fun playing with the women this week, and I think it’s been a great partnership between the LPGA and the PGA TOUR. I feel like the fans and the players have been wanting something like this for a long time. It was just fun. It was just kind of weird, coming down the finishing few holes, once we were on 25-under, I felt like one of us was going to birdie 17, and then it was kind of going to — someone was going to par 18. It was almost like some stress there, but it wasn’t as stressful because you have a partner, and when you have a partner like Lydia, when she hits a mint 3-wood into 17 and hits it to five yards, that’s when you kind of can relax a little bit. Overall it’s been a tremendous week to play this week with Lydia. Just lifelong friends from now on, you know.”
Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners opened eagle, birdie, double bogey before adding a second eagle at the par-4 9th when Conners holed out from 203 yards with a 5-iron to be the only team with multiple eagles in the final round. They made five birdies on the back nine, including four in a row on Nos. 12-15 and held the solo-lead briefly more than once before finishing one stroke shy in second place.
After a 12-under 60 in the opening-round scramble format followed by an even-par 72 in foursomes, Ludvig Åberg and Madelene Sagstrom posted the low final-round 60 in the odified fourball that included an 8-under 28 on the back nine to finish third at 24-under.
The Grant Thornton Invitational is a first-year PGA TOUR Challenge Season event (unofficial) and the first mixed-team co-sanctioned event between the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour since John Daly and Laura Davies won the final JCPenney Classic in 1999.
