Thompson and Clark Share Lead at Grant Thornton Invitational with Record-Breaking 55
Lexi Thompson and Wyndham Clark fired a tournament record 17-under 55 in Friday’s scramble format at Tiburon Golf Club, sharing the lead with Charley Hull and Michael Brennan at the Grant Thornton Invitational.
Both teams made only three pars during their rounds, taking full advantage of ideal scoring conditions in Naples.
Brennan, who’s filling in for Daniel Berger, has had quite a journey to this point. He started the year on the PGA Tour of Americas and won the Bank of Utah Championship playing on an exemption. He and Hull went on a remarkable run of 13 consecutive holes with either birdie or eagle, finally making pars on the 16th and 18th holes.
“It’s quite funny because actually I was changing my swing last week and I come on Tuesday and I could not even keep the ball on the planet. So I was actually pretty nervous today,” Hull said. “Actually, it worked out pretty well.”
Thompson and Clark were equally impressive, making birdie or eagle on nine of their final 10 holes. Their only par came at the par-3 16th.
“I feel like we kind of have similar games,” Clark said. “She hits it really far off the tee, and if one of us is in play, we’re significantly past kind of the competitors and we have our advantage there.”
Their 55 broke the previous scoring record by one shot in this mixed-team event that began three years ago.
The co-leaders hold a two-shot advantage over Lauren Coughlin and Andrew Novak. Three teams sit three shots back at 14-under: Rose Zhang and Michael Kim, Nelly Korda and Denny McCarthy, and Jennifer Kupcho and Chris Gotterup.
The competition gets considerably tougher on Saturday when the format shifts to foursomes (alternate shot), where players take turns hitting the same ball. Sunday’s final round features modified fourballs.
Defending champions Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit started hot with a 7-under run through six holes and played their final seven holes in 5-under. Their 59 leaves them four shots off the pace heading into the weekend.
