A co-sanctioned event between the PGA Tour and the LPGA at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida had already announced some spectacular pairings, with the likes of Rose Zhang and Sahith Theegala, Tony Finau and Nelly Korda, Rickie Fowler and Jessica Korda, and Corey Conners and Brooke Henderson all set to team up.
The Grant Thornton Invitational is set to debut Dec. 8-10 at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, as part of the Challenge Season.
It will be the first mixed-team co-sanctioned event between the two tours since John Daly and Laura Davies won the final edition of the JCPenney Classic in 1999.
The 32-player field will be comprised of 16 PGA Tour and 16 LPGA players competing for a $4 million purse. The three-day event will be televised by NBC and Golf Channel.
The Grant Thornton replaced the QBE Shootout, which was founded by Greg Norman in 1989 and had been played in Naples since 2001. Last year, Theegala teamed with Tom Hoge to win the event, coming from two down in the final round to edge Ryan Palmer and Charley Hoffman.
This week, the three playing formats for the Grant Thornton were unveiled in a piece written by our network partners at the Naples Daily News:
Friday, Dec. 8: Scramble format
In this round, each player hits a tee shot and then the team selects the ball to be used for the next stroke. From there, both players hit their next shots from that spot. This process continues until the ball is holed.
Saturday, Dec. 9: Foursome (alternate shot) format
This is the most traditional of the three days, adhering to a format that is consistently featured in both the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup. 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.
Sunday, Dec. 10: Modified Four-Ball format
This final round will feature a format new to team play and a twist on traditional Four-Ball. In the modified format, both players tee off, and then they switch balls for their second shots and play that same ball until it is holed. The lower score of the partners is then counted as the team score for the hole.