Grant Thornton Invitational at Tiburón Golf Club
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We're back with the weekly briefing for the fans on where and what the PGA is up to this week. Again, we'll hit the where, the previous conquerors, and what todays golfers will need to do to have a chance at the top spots.
It's mid-December and No Dirt Thursday is on the tour's last stop for the year. Honing in on The Grant Thornton Invitational in Naples, Florida to wrap up 2025. For the last run, they couldn't make it the normal, run-of-the-mill tournament. This invitational pairs one tour pro with one LPGA pro with the beautiful Tiburón Golf Club Gold Course as the backdrop.
The Gold Course is a Greg Norman design that trades rough for coquina waste areas, stacked sod-wall bunkers, and water that squeezes landing zones. It looks generous from the tee but asks for precise angles moving into firm, tightly mown green surrounds. Miss on the wrong side and the ball speeds into sand or hazard. Wind and risk-reward par 5s make trajectory control and teamwork the true separators.
Florida Golf Course Review
Tournament purse is set to $4,000,000.
Latest editions
2024 | Patty Tavatanakit / Jake Knapp | 189 (−27) | won by 1 | read about it here.
2023 | Lydia Ko / Jason Day | 190 (−26) | won by 1 | read about it here.
Tournament history
Founded: 2023.
Venue[s]: Launched and has remained at Tiburón Golf Club at The Ritz-Carlton Naples, Florida since the invitational founding.
Records (event all-time):
Low 18: 56 (−16) Korda/Finau in the 2023 Scramble round.
Low 54: 189 (−27) Knapp/Tavatanakit in 2024.
See full record book on the event site.
Golfweek, Cliff Hawkins/Getty
Other: Ended the 24 year hiatus of a mixed-team event featuring players from PGA Tour & LPGA since the JCPenney Classic ended in 1999.
Equal-pay mixed invitational with $1M to the winning team.
The Host: Tiburón Golf Club
Origins: The club features not one, but two Norman designs: the Gold (1998) and Black (2001) and is a certified member of Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.
Current site: The Gold Course hosts the event.
Plays like: The profile is flat but there’s plenty of water and sand to shape and force decisions. Minimal rough with stacked sod-wall bunkers and coquina waste areas create clear targets and punish any misses.
Golf Digest, Dave Sansom
Numbers to watch
Format swing: Scoring spikes in Scramble and then tightens in Foursomes. The Modified Four-Ball twist (switch balls after the tee shot) will reward the teams with balanced tee games.
Gold Course yardage: 7,382 for the men, 6,788 for the women.
Tournament marks: The pace is set for what hot looks like, players should be aiming for a low round of 56 and searching for that low total of 189.
Closing firepower: In the opening years, teams have eagled the par-5 17th. Will 2025 be any different?
On Deck
The PGA Tour goes quiet until 2026. No Dirt Thursday's first stop in January will be at the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii.