Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit posted twelve birdies and an eagle on the par-5 17th hole for a 14-under 58 in scramble format to take a one-shot lead at the Grant Thornton Invitational.
They opened with nine consecutive birdies to equal the nine-hole scoring record at the event with a front-nine 27.
“I think we kind of ham-and-egged it there on the front nine for a while, but at the same time I think we both just hit a lot of solid shots, had a lot of good looks and kind of fed off each other in terms of if somebody didn’t hit a good shot. There wasn’t really much strategy necessarily, it was more just try to go hit good golf shots and try to put ourselves in good opportunities and we were able to do that,” said Knapp.
Tavatanakit and Knapp are 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.
2024 Olympians Corey Conners and Brooke Henderson opened with a 13-under 59, including nine birdies and eagles on the par-5 14th and 17th holes for a share of second place at 13-under. They finished runner-up by one stroke to champions Lydia Ko and Jason Day in 2023.
“It was a really good day, I feel like a really solid start,” said Henderson. “I feel like scramble’s a really fun way to start the tournament. Corey hit a lot of really great shots into the greens, gave us a lot of really good looks for birdie, which is always a great thing. We were able to make some putts today, a couple eagles on the back nine, so overall it was good and just try to get a solid game plan going into tomorrow.”
Also in second place are Akshay Bhatia and Jennifer Kupcho who carded a 13-under 59. Bhatia has two wins on the PGA Tour (2023 Barracuda Championship, 2024 Valero Texas Open), while Kupcho has three LPGA Tour wins (including a major championship victory at the 2022 Chevron Championship).
“I feel like she hit it really straight for most of the day,” said Bhatia. “She capitalized on all the par 5s pretty much off the tee. And she went first on every putt and I felt like once I saw the line, I had a pretty good idea of what the putt was doing if she didn’t make it. Besides 18, thankfully I didn’t have to hit that one. Other than that, we really enjoyed just trying to get to know each other. It’s going to be a fun couple days and we’re in the 59 club now, so proud of that today.”
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Grant Thornton Invitational format: Three-round 54-hole stroke-play event with 16 teams of two. R1/Scramble, R2/Foursomes, R3/Modified Four-Ball
Scramble: Each player hits a tee shot and then the team selects the ball to be used for the next stroke. From there, both players hit
their next shots from that spot. This process continues until the ball is holed.
