‘Moving the Needle:’ The Grant Thornton Invitational Delivered As a Cross-Tour Collaboration
NAPLES, Fla. – In the end there were two: Jason Day and Lydia Ko triumphed at the Grant Thornton Invitational, an event which—as both winners aptly noted—will have an impact that stretches far beyond themselves.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many female junior golfers out at an event, especially a PGA Tour event, as I did this week,” Day said, sitting alongside Ko.
MORE: Final payouts from the Grant Thornton
Day and Ko shot a final-round 6-under 66 in the modified four-ball format Sunday, in which the pairs of male and female pros swapped tee balls and played out from there. The all-Canadian team of Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners came up just one shot shy of the win, shooting 9 under on the day to claw their way back into contention. Sunday’s low round came from the Swedish duo of Ludvig Aberg and Madeline Sagstrom, who shot a stunning 12-under 60 capped off by an eagle on the 17th.
But it was Day and Ko who ultimately clinched the shared title at the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational, the first PGA Tour-LPGA Tour co-sanctioned event since 1999.
Despite the laid-back nature of the offseason event, the pair from “Down Under” always had their sights set on a win, as former world No. 1’s tend to do.
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“Yeah, it’s fun,” Day said on Saturday evening. “But I still want to win. And I’m sure Lydia wants to win, too.” The duo’s all-in mentality paid off.
Like Ko and Day, Grant Thornton—the tournament’s official title sponsor for the next five years—is already considering the week a win too. The event’s attendance numbers have skyrocketed and hopefully strong TV ratings will follow. According to Allison Kelly, Grant Thornton’s senior director of sponsorship marketing, the mixed-team event between the PGA Tour and LPGA garnered more than double the amount of ticket sales compared to last year’s QBE Shootout, which featured teams of just PGA Tour players. Lexi Thompson and Nelly Korda were sponsors invitees in the old event, helping carve the path for a full mixed-gender field to be made possible.
“We spoke about this three years ago and for them to actually produce it and go by their word is pretty incredible,” says England’s Mel Reid, who played alongside Russel Henley this week.
Across the board, the first mixed-team event in 25 years has been deemed a success. Justin Rose thought the tournament showcased the talent pool on both tours effortlessly, something which he claimed is “important” for the game moving forward. Billy Horschel was blown away by the on-site turnout, and says the creation of the event was “only a matter of time.”
But there is a shared sentiment among players that there is always room to do more. For starters, it would help if the event hadn’t coincided with some of the biggest golf news of the season: Jon Rahm’s defection to LIV Golf.
“I think we all know that it’s unfortunate that news outside of the golf course was sort of trumping a really important week, but it was still a successful week,” Horschel says. “It took eyeballs and it took media attention away from this week, but still, walking away, it was a much needed success. It just would have been nice if it was a quiet week and we were the big show in town.”
Reid, who has done stints as a Golf Channel analyst and is recognized as one of the stronger voices in the women’s game, already has a few ideas for how the crossover event between the LPGA and PGA Tours can be strengthened—aside from dodging off-course noise. Reid hopes that in future years the event might include more household PGA Tour names to help bolster the tournament’s reach.
“I certainly think they could implement more teams. I think that would be great to get more of the girls and more of the guys involved. Not that we didn’t have big names this week, but hopefully some of the top boys, you know, come and support this because it’s big for golf—this is ‘change’ and this is ‘growing the game’ and everyone speaks about that. But events like this do that.”
Lilia Vu, Ruoning Yin, and Celine Boutier— the top three players in the world on the women’s side—were all in the field this week. On the men’s side, however, No. 21 Jason Day and No. 24 Rickie Fowler were the top-ranked names.
With the event placed directly after the Hero World Challenge, Tiger Woods’s invitational event in the Bahamas, scheduling conflicts are real, as Rose and Horschel both noted when asked about the strength of this week’s PGA Tour attendees. But there are always changes the event could implement to make entry more enticing, including increasing the $4 million shared purse.
“Obviously you’ve got Hero that just happened. Dates are tough. Guys are sort of winding down a little bit, but if it can position itself before some of these events—because obviously there is a lot of time off now with the FedEx Cup finishing, and then there’s not that much pressure to play in the fall. It should be possible to get a good field,” Rose says.
“I’d encourage them to step the purse up to be an attractive purse for everyone, you know? I think that’s what we all need to be doing, especially for pay equality and these types of things. I think it’s a good purse, but move the needle.
“We’re very appreciative that Grant Thornton has gotten behind this event, because I think it has a lot to offer. But if we really want to tell the correct story, it needs to be an event that people really can’t miss. I think it’s one of those events that will grow. People will start to nurture their relationships on other Tours. I think you’ll start to see some real good partnerships and friendships grow from this, which I think should strengthen the tournament.”
Taking things one step further would be the creation of an official co-sanctioned LPGA Tour-PGA Tour event (this week’s event was considered an “unofficial” offseason tournament).
For years, the idea has been floated around by fans and players alike that the PGA Tour’s Presidents Cup should introduce female professionals into the fold. The biennial event between the U.S. and the International Team (the world minus Europe) has become totally lopsided, with the U.S. squad winning every installation since 2005. Reid, for one, is all about that proposal: Adding LPGA Tour players could level out the competition and make the viewing experience much more compelling.
“I’ve always said that the Presidents Cup should be a mixed event,” the Englishwoman says. “I think that the Americans are so dominant in that, that I think if they got some of the Aussie girls and the Koreans, it would be so good. I mean, they’re really f–king good. I think it would be a lot more competitive and even as a spectator, since obviously I don’t take part in that, I would love to see that. I think the Olympics should be mixed, I’ve always said it should have been a mixed team event, I think it would make it way more fun. Hopefully this is moving the needle a little bit and maybe getting some sponsors to think about it some more.”
For now, however, the Grant Thornton Invitational has proved to be a worthwhile addition to the schedule for both the PGA Tour and LPGA. Male and female pros competing on the same course, in the same groups and for the same $4 million purse should be considered a massive step in a very positive direction. It’s only up from here.