Pre-Tournament Notes - Grant Thornton Invitational

2023 Grant Thornton Invitational Pre-Tournament Notes

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
Location: Naples, Florida
Course: Tiburón Golf Club
Par: Par 72/Yards: 7,382 (PGA TOUR), 6,595 (LPGA)
Purse: $4 million
Winner: $1 million ($500,000 each)
Format: three-day, 54-hole stroke-play event
- Friday: Scramble
- Saturday: Foursomes
- Sunday: Modified Four-ball

Fowler won the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic, his sixth career PGA TOUR title and first since 2019, and finished the season with eight top-10s, his most in a season since 2016-17 (10)
Fowler, a Grant Thornton ambassador, has competed in three Presidents Cups, five Ryder Cups and one Olympic Games (2016)
Fowler played in the 2017 Zurich Classic of New Orleans with partner Jason Day (MC); Day is competing this week with Lydia Ko
11-time LPGA Tour winner Lexi Thompson made her PGA TOUR debut at the 2023 Shriners Children’s Open (MC), becoming the seventh woman tcompete in a PGA TOUR event
Thompson is a two-time Olympian and has played on six U.S. Solheim Cup Teams

Eight-time LPGA Tour winner Nelly Korda had nine top-10s this season, and was a member of the 2023 U.S. Solheim Cup Team
Korda played with Denny McCarthy at the 2022 QBE Shootout at Tiburón Golf Club
Finau, a six-time TOUR winner, won twice on TOUR in 2022-23 (Cadence Bank Houston Open, Mexico Open at Vidanta)
Finau has made four starts in the team format at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, including a sixth-place finish in 2018 with partner Daniel Summerhays

Theegala and Zhang are both Southern California natives, and went to California universities
Theegala won the 2022 QBE Shootout with Tom Hoge, who is teaming with Cheyenne Knight in the Grant Thornton Invitational
Both Zhang (Mizuho Americas Open) and Theegala (Fortinet Championship) earned their first wins on the LPGA and PGA TOURs in 2023
Zhang is the reigning NCAA Women’s Golf Individual champion and winner of the August National Women’s Amateur

Conners and Henderson are the top-ranked male and female Canadian golfers in the world
Both represented Canada at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, with Henderson also appearing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio
Conners won his second PGA TOUR title at the 2023 Valero Texas Open and finished the season with five top-10 finishes
Henderson is the winningest Canadian golfer in history, adding her 13th victory at the 2023 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions last January

Highest ranked players in the field are Lilia Vu at No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and Jason Day at No. 19 in the Official World Golf Ranking
Three players in the field competed in the 2023 Ryder Cup; one for the United States (Rickie Fowler) and twfor Europe (Ludvig Åberg, Justin Rose)
12 players in the field competed at the 2023 Solheim Cup; eight for the United States (Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson, Lilia Vu, Rose Zhang, Megan Khang, Andrea Lee, Cheyenne Knight, Allisen Corpuz) and four for Europe (Charley Hull, Celine Boutier, Madelene Sagstrom, Leona Maguire)
11 of the 32 players in the field have won a major, including eight for the LPGA Tour (Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson, Lilia Vu, Brooke Henderson, Lydia Ko, Celine Boutier, Allisen Corpuz, Ruoning Yin) and three for the PGA TOUR (Jason Day, Lucas Glover, Justin Rose)
12 players in the field have represented their country in the Olympics, highlighted by gold medalists Nelly Korda and Justin Rose (others: Rickie Fowler, Corey Conners, Lexi Thompson, Brooke Henderson, Lydia Ko, Leona Maguire, Mel Reid, Cheyenne Knight, Céline Boutier, Madelene Sagstrom)
Nine different countries are represented in the field: Australia, Canada, China, England, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden and United States