The PGA Tour and LPGA Tour combine this weekend for the final tournament on the 2024 calendar, the unique Grant Thornton Invitational, a mixed pairs competition featuring stars from both the men's and women's circuits.
Sixteen pairs will gather at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, to compete in the Grant Thornton, which is not an official tournament on either the PGA or LPGA schedule, but which does come with a lucrative $4 million in total prize money.
Starting on Friday, the GTI is a three-round tournament featuring three formats - scramble in the opening round, foursomes in round two and final-round modified fourballs.
Jason Day and Lydia Ko triumphed in last season's inaugural event, holding off the charging Canadian duo of Corey Conners and Brooke Henderson, and they are back to defend their title at Tiburon.
Tony Finau and Nelly Korda, the top-class American team, lead the betting market, although Finau was forced to withdraw from the Hero World Challenge last week citing a knee injury.
- TOM KIM & JEENO THITIKUL TO WIN
- JASON DAY & LYDIA KO TO WIN
Kim And Thitikul Look Hard To Stop
With question marks over the Finau-Korda team, Tom Kim and Atthaya 'Jeeno' Thitikul look best placed to challenge for the Grant Thornton title in their first appearance in the event.
Most of the teams have a weaker player, on current form at least, but this is one pairing where both players come into the event on the back of superb recent results and firing on all cylinders.
Kim has relished the team environment in the Presidents Cup for the Internationals and he heads to Florida with his confidence sky-high after finishing runner-up to the mighty Scottie Scheffler in the Hero World Challenge on Sunday.
Thitikul, meanwhile, is the fourth-ranked LPGA player and has fallen in love with Tiburon, which also stages the LPGA's season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, a tournament which she won last month.
The Thai star, a crack putter who has finished no worse than eighth in her last six starts, could prove an ideal foil for Kim.
TOM KIM & JEENO THITIKUL TO WIN
Dynamic Duo Could Repeat Last Year's Win
Day and Ko relished competing together when winning last season and there is every chance that the Aussie and the Kiwi can combine for another successful week in Florida.
With ultra-low scoring the standard in this tournament, sharp putting is essential and there isn't a duo in the field who are stronger in that department than Day and Ko - both of whom ranked in the top ten on the greens this year on their respective tours.
Day finished last at the Hero World Challenge last week and will need to sharpen up, but he was previously eighth in the Australian PGA Championship, so there's every chance he will bounce back.
Ko has been superb in recent months, winning Olympic gold, the Women's British Open and the Kroger Queen City Championship before finishing third at Tiburon on her last start.
JASON DAY & LYDIA KO TO WIN
