Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit recorded seven birdies and one bogey at the 4th to close with a for a 6-under 66 in Foursomes.
They hold the 36-hole lead by two strokes, equaling the largest 36-hole lead at the event (Jason Day and Lydia Ko/2023). At 20-under 124, they tie the tournament 36-hole scoring record (Day/Ko/2023).
“I put us into some bad places off the tee early on that front nine,” said Knapp. “It was nice having a partner that just kind of stuck behind me.
“The first nine holes were just brutal with how much wind there was, rain, everything else. She did a great job of keeping me positive. I think we just did a good job of kind of following up bad shots with good shots and we were able to just grind it out.”
“I’m super happy with the result obviously,” added Tavatanakit, “but like going into today, honestly the past, for the whole week I just don’t know what to expect. Like different formats I haven’t played, like this format in a stroke play thing before. It’s always been like match play, you just kind of go at it more. So it is a different approach, don’t know what to expect. A little nervous because like I want to give my partner the best look as possible. I mean, it’s pretty — it’s pretty nerve wracking, but pressure is privilege, so I owned it.”
Knapp and Tavatanakit are the only team in the field with both players having won on their respective Tour this season. Knapp finished No. 64 in the FedExCup Fall standings after qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs in his rookie season.
Tom Kim and Jeeno Thitikul set the Grant Thornton Invitational 18-hole Foursomes scoring record with a second round 8-under 64 (previous: 66/Jason Day and Lydia Ko/2023) and lie in second place at 18-under. They are one of four teams in which both players participated in the women’s and men’s golf competitions at the 2024 Paris Olympics (Kim/Republic of Korea, Thitikul/Thailand).
Jennifer Kupcho and Akshay Bhatia carded a 4-under 68 to move down into third place at 17-under.
Defending champions Jason Day and Lydia Ko followed an opening round 10-under 62 with a 5-under 67 to sit five shots back in fourth place at 15-under entering the final round.
“We kind of got off to a slow start just similar to yesterday, but then came home strong,” said Day. “It’s so nice to be able to get Lydia down in the middle of the fairway because it feels like she never misses a green, to be honest. It’s nice that you know that probably the worst putt you’re going to have is 20 feet where I’m wishing to get my ball close to 20 feet all the time.
“It’s been, it’s been really fun. I’m looking forward to playing with Lydia again tomorrow.”
“I had so much fun last year and to know that we’re going to play again this year, I was super excited. I was just anticipating for this week to come and it’s been great,” said Ko.
“Obviously would have been great if we played a little bit better, but just to know at the back of my mind that there’s Jason to back me up if I do miss a shot or — which I have. He’s been really nice saying that I haven’t. I know he has such a great short game, specially if I do hit it on the green, we’ve got a good chance for birdie.
“I feel like I can be a bit more aggressive and confident and go for some of these pins that I necessarily wouldn’t be if I was just playing alone. On the other side, I think I get more frustrated because I’m trying to leave a shorter putt for him where I might be OK if it was just myself putting. I just want to do better and it’s just been great.
“And the chemistry that our whole team has even with our caddies has been great. I’m just excited for tomorrow and I feel like we’ve got a really good one and we’ve been consistently playing better. So hopefully today’s back nine will give us good momentum to tomorrow.”
***
Format: Three-round 54-hole stroke-play event with 16 teams of two. R1/Scramble, R2/Foursomes, R3/Modified Four-Ball
Foursomes: Each team’s players alternate hitting shots with the same ball until the ball is holed. One player will tee off on the odd-numbered holes, and the other tees off on the even-numbered holes.
