Two teams have been announced thus far for the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational, a mixed-team event that will see players from the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour compete as partners this December at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla.
The first team to be announced was the Canadian duo of Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners. Henderson is a two-time major champion, winning the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and 2022 Amundi Evian Championship. With 13 total career victories, the Smith Falls, Ontario native is the winningest Canadian professional golfer in history and has been victorious in all but one of her nine seasons on the LPGA Tour.
Conners hails from Listowel, Ontario, and is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, capturing both the 2019 and 2023 Valero Texas Opens.
Rose Zhang and Sahith Theegala are also set to team up at Tiburon later this year. Stanford University standout Zhang became a 2023 LPGA Tour rookie after winning as a non-member at the Mizuho Americas Open earlier this season in her first start as a professional. She was the first player since Beverly Hanson in 1951 to accomplish the feat and immediately accepted the automatic LPGA Tour Membership that is traditionally offered to non-Member winners. Since that historic win, Zhang has recorded three additional top-10 finishes, tying for eighth at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, tying for ninth at the U.S. Women’s Open and again tying for ninth at The Amundi Evian Championship.
Theegala turned professional in 2020 after becoming a three-time All-American at Pepperdine University and winning the Haskins, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus Awards. He was a 2022 PGA Tour rookie and is still looking for his first official win on Tour. Theegala won the 2022 QBE Shootout alongside partner Tom Hoge, an unofficial PGA Tour tournament.
The Grant Thornton Invitational runs from December 8-10 and will be played at Tiburon Golf Club’s Gold Course. An equal purse of $4 million is up for grabs with $2 million allotted for the LPGA Tour and $2 million going to the PGA Tour. Tickets can be purchased here.
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