The LPGA and PGA Tours announced today that Lydia Ko and Jason Day will partner up for the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational. The event is set to take place from December 8 to December 10, with 16 teams made up of 32 players competing for a purse of $4 million at Tiburon Golf Club’s Gold Course.
Ko is a 19-time LPGA Tour winner and two-time major champion, capturing the 2015 Amundi Evian Championship and 2016 Chevron Championship. She has amassed 102 total career top-10 finishes since joining the LPGA Tour in 2014, but she won two LPGA Tour events as an amateur non-member, taking the CPKC Women’s Open title in both 2012 and 2013. She ascended to No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings for the first time in 2015 and has spent 125 career weeks in the top spot, most recently holding the position from November 2022 to April 2023.
The 26-year-old is a three-time Race to CME Globe champion, winning the season-long competition in 2014, 2015 and 2022, and was named the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 2014. Ko earned Rolex Player of the Year honors in 2015 and 2022 and is a two-time Vare Trophy recipient, finishing with the lowest scoring average on Tour in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons. She was recognized with the Founders Award, an honor that recognizes a player whose behavior showcases the values of the LPGA and who acts like one of the organization’s 13 founders on a regular basis.
The New Zealand native represented her country at both the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, taking home the silver medal in Brazil and the bronze medal in Japan. She is currently ranked 12th in the Rolex Rankings and is fifth on the career money list with $16,695,357 earned.
The LPGA Tour veteran is looking forward to teeing it up alongside Day and has had the Grant Thornton Invitational circled on her calendar since the event was announced. While the Tour does have an annual team-play event on its calendar in the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, the format isn’t one that many often see when competing on the LPGA, and Ko is more than excited to play alongside a partner once again, something that doesn’t happen much for the Kiwi. That partner being Jason Day is just the cherry on top.
“I obviously really wanted to play in the event,” said Ko. “I always love team format events. I don't really have the opportunity to play in many team-format tournaments, so I was super excited. No matter who you're playing with, it's just such a great experience, and I think it's great for golf in general.
“I've always liked Jason Day as the golfer, but he just seems like a great person, has a great family with his kids and his wife. I don’t think we’ve officially met or had a long conversation before, so I’m excited to pick his brain. Obviously, him being from Australia and me from New Zealand, (we’re) like Team Down Under, so I’m super excited for December to come around.”
Day hails from Australia and is a 13-time PGA Tour champion, most notably winning the 2015 PGA Championship and the 2016 Players Championship. The 35-year-old most recently found the winner’s circle at the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson, ending a five-year drought that hadn’t seen him win on the PGA Tour since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship. Day became a PGA Tour member in 2008 and has recorded 91 career top-10 finishes and made $57,013,845 in career earnings.
He ascended to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings for the first time in 2015 and is a four-time President’s Cup team member, representing Australia on the International Team in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.
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