Grant Thornton Invitational: Format, terrain, schedule as Nelly Korda headlines LPGA Tour and PGA Tour blended group occasion | Golf information

The Grant Thornton Invitational returns this week, reside on Sky Sports activitieswith the celebrities of the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour becoming a member of forces for a novel blended group occasion. Here is a take a look at the format, pitch, schedule and every little thing it’s worthwhile to know…

What is that this?

The 54-hole competitors is a blended group occasion that sees 16 LPGA Tour professionals and 16 PGA Tour professionals compete collectively in a novel co-sanctioned match.

The three-day match options three totally different codecs of group play and permits all 32 gamers to compete for equal prize cash and publicity.

That is the second consecutive 12 months the match has been on the calendar, having launched in 2023 as the primary co-sanctioned occasion between the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour for the reason that JCPenney Basic in 1999.

What codecs are used?

Friday’s motion performs out within the type of a blurthe place every participant hits a tee shot, then the group selects which ball to make use of for the following shot. Each gamers hit their subsequent pictures from this spot and the method continues till the ball is in.

The second spherical makes use of quartetgamers from every group alternating pictures with the identical ball till the ball is in. One participant will play on odd holes and the opposite on even holes.

Sunday’s remaining spherical is then performed below a 4 modified ballsthe place each gamers tee off and alter balls for his or her second shot. They then play that very same ball till it’s holed, with the decrease rating between the 2 then counting because the group’s rating for that gap.

The place is it performed?

The match is performed at Tiburón Golf Membership, dwelling of the LPGA Tour’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship and the QBE Shootout – a group occasion that was held on the PGA Tour till it was discontinued on the finish of 2022.

Who performs it?

5 of the world’s high 10 in ladies’s soccer, with world #1 Nelly Korda – LPGA Tour participant of the 12 months after seven world victories in 2024 – alongside Tony Finau and two-time main champion Lilia Vu alongside by Luke Checklist.

AIG Girls’s Open champion Lydia Ko returns to defend the title with former males’s world #1 Jason Day, with Solheim Cup star Céline Boutier additionally in motion and compatriot Matthieu Pavon.

Lexi Thompson is paired with Rickie Fowler and Lauren Coughlin performs alongside Cameron Younger, whereas Sahith Theegala is the highest-ranked participant in males’s soccer and can associate Allisen Corpuz.

What’s to be gained?

Though the occasion is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour, it doesn’t depend as an official match and cash received is unofficial within the season standings.

Official World Golf Rating (OWGR) and Rolex Girls’s World Rating factors aren’t awarded, though there’s a $4 million (£3.1 million) purse and winners will share equally $1 million (£784,000)

PGA Golf Tour Reside

Friday December 13 at 6:00 p.m.

Who has already received it?

Day and Ko are reigning champions after final 12 months’s one-shot victory over Conners and Henderson, with Swedes Ludvig Åberg and Madelene Sagstrom ending two pictures behind third.

Theegala and Tom Hoge received the final version of the QBE Shootout earlier than it was deserted, with Kuchar and Harris English three-time champions of the occasion in its outdated format.

How can I watch reside on Sky Sports activities?

There might be three hours of reside protection of every of the three rounds, with protection beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday and seven p.m. on Saturday earlier than returning at 6 p.m. for the ultimate day.

The match is certainly one of two tournaments broadcast reside on Sky Sports activities Golf this week, with the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Championship reside from 10am on Thursday and Friday earlier than beginning at 9.30am this weekend.

Who will win the Grant Thornton Invitational? Watch all week lengthy reside on Sky Sports activities. Reside protection of the opening spherical begins Friday from 6 p.m. on Sky Sports activities Golf. Stream the PGA Tour and more with NOW.