Grant Thornton Invitational 2025 Betting Tips: Who will be our winning pair?

With both the PGA Tour and LPGA having officially wrapped up their seasons a few weeks earlier, the two tours return for one final time in 2025 for the third edition of the Grant Thornton Invitational, held on the Gold Course at Tiburon Golf Club in Florida.

Our resident golf tipster Jamie Worsley is back with two more value each-way picks this week, so let's check out his Grant Thornton Invitational 2025 Betting Tips here at Betfred Insights...

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*You can bet on the tournament and check out the latest Grant Thornton Invitational Odds over on betfred.com

TOURNAMENT HISTORY

The Grant Thornton Invitational is a mixed-team event that is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and LPGA. It replaced the QBE Shootout that ran on the PGA Tour from 1989 to 2022, and it is the first tournament jointly staged between these two tours since the 1999 JCPenney Classic.

A top-class, major-winning pairing of Jason Day and Lydia Ko won the first edition in 2023, firing a winning score of 26-under-par to beat the Canadian duo of Corey Conners and Brooke Henderson by one shot.

They were succeeded by Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit last year, who finished the event one ahead of Tom Kim and Jeeno Thitikul. They return to defend that title this week.

FORMAT

Contested over three rounds, this tournament involves 16 pairs – involving one player from each of the PGA Tour and LPGA – competing in the following stroke-play formats over the course of the week:

Round 1 (Friday): Scramble
The event begins on Friday with scramble rules. During this first round, both players from each team will tee off, and then choose which ball to use for the next stroke. They then both play their next shot from that position, and this process continues until the ball is holed.

Round 2 (Saturday): Foursomes (alternate shot)
Familiar to viewers of the Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup or Presidents Cup, the second round will be played in foursomes. This involves both players using the same ball, alternating shot-to-shot until the hole is finished.

Round 3 (Sunday): Modified fourball
The third and final round is played using modified fourball. Here, each player tees off, but they then switch balls for their second shots, playing that ball until the hole is completed.

THE COURSE

Yardages:

PGA TOUR – 7382-yard par 72; 4x par 3s (175-225 yards) 10x par 4s (350-485 yards) & 4x par 5s (559-600 yards)

LPGA – 6788-yard par 72; 4x par 3s (170-190 yards), 10x par 4s (350-425 yards) & 4x par 5s (485-578 yards)

Tiburon Golf Club's Gold Course was completed by Greg Norman in 1998. It has hosted this event – including its predecessor the QBE Shootout – since 2001 and has also been the home of the LPGA's CME Group Tour Championship since 2013.

This typically flat Florida layout is framed by towering cypress and pine trees, and features little in the way of elevation changes. Meanwhile, water is a prominent danger throughout, coming into play on 13 holes.

The fairways are extremely wide, requiring players to think about where they position the ball off the tee. They are protected by limited but smartly placed bunkers, and while there is no rough, the coquina shell waste areas can prove penal for those wayward drives.

Bermudagrass covers the course, including on the large and undulating putting surfaces. These predominantly elevated greens are angled to the fairway and mainly shallow or narrow in shape, allowing for some tricky pin positions. Steep-faced sod-wall bunkers provide ample protection, often resulting in a chip-out sideways if found.

With four gettable par 5s and many shorter par 4s there to be attacked, Tiburon's Gold Course is packed with scoring chances. Indeed, four of the last five editions of the CME Group Tour Championship have been won with scores of -22 or lower, and with all of that water in play, this fun, risk/reward layout is ideal for this event.

THE WEATHER

Conditions are set fair over the opening two days, with sunshine, little wind, and temperatures of 25°C on the cards. There is forecast to be around 10mm of rain arriving overnight on Sunday, resulting in a potentially receptive course for the final round, but with gusting winds of 20mph forecast, it may not be so easy to take advantage.

KEY STATS

• SG: Approach/Greens-in-Regulation (GIR)
• SG: Putting (bermudagrass)
• Birdie-or-Better %

This course and format is all about making birdies, and the key to that is quality into and on the large, speedy bermudagrass greens.

Last year's winning duo of Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit are both strong with the putter; Knapp ranked 14^th in SG: Putting on the PGA Tour this season, while Tavatanakit ranked 59^th on the LPGA. In addition, runners-up Jeeno Thitikul and Tom Kim are a high-class approach duo at their best.

The putter was another area in which the 2023 winners – Jason Day and Lydia Ko – have excelled throughout their career. Meanwhile, Ko – who has also won here twice in the CME Group Tour Championship – is a superb iron player, as are the 2023 runners-up, Corey Conners and Brooke Henderson.

THE TEAMS

Each of our previous winning teams both return to compete this year: Jake Knapp & Patty Tavatanakit (2024) and Jason Day & Lydia Ko (2023).

It's an event that includes nine of the top 25 LPGA players in the world, and six of the top 50 from the OWGR will also tee it up. Full teams and their respective world rankings can be found below:

PGA Tour (OWGR) / LPGA (Rolex Ranking):

Denny McCarthy (No. 65) / Nelly Korda (No. 2)

Michael Brennan (No. 35) / Charley Hull (No. 5)

Jason Day (No. 53) / Lydia Ko (No. 6)

Luke Clanton (No. 168) / Lottie Woad (No. 11)

Tom Hoge (No. 94) / Angel Yin (No. 13)

Neal Shipley (No. 95) / Maja Stark (No. 15)

Andrew Novak (No. 32) / Lauren Coughlin (No. 20)

Billy Horschel (No. 46) / Andrea Lee (No. 21)

Corey Conners (No. 30) / Brooke Henderson (No. 25)

Chris Gotterup (No. 28) / Jennifer Kupcho (No. 32)

Michael Kim (No. 36) / Rose Zhang (No. 61)

Keith Mitchell (No. 125) / Megan Khang (No. 38)

Wyndham Clark (No. 39) / Lexi Thompson (No. 76)

Tony Finau (No. 89) / Lilia Vu (No. 45)

Jake Knapp (No. 100) / Patty Tavatanakit (No. 56)

Bud Cauley (No. 70) / Jessica Korda (N/A)

SELECTIONS 

Market leaders: Corey Conners & Brooke Henderson 11/2, Denny McCarthy & Nelly Korda 6/1, Jason Day & Lydia Ko 7/1, Michael Brennan & Charley Hull 15/2,

5 pts Jason Day & Lydia Ko to win @ 7/1

The team of Jason Day and Lydia Ko won the first renewal of this event in 2023 and I'm taking a chance on them reclaiming the title this week. They're by far the strongest-putting duo in this field, and also possessing an excellent touch around the greens, they'll be difficult to beat if Sunday's final-round conditions make things that touch more challenging.

Both players did much of their best work at the beginning of the season. Ko won the HSBC Women's World Championship on her third start of 2025, while Day finished 3^rd in The AmEx, and 8^th at The Masters and Arnold Palmer Invitational across the first four months. Results have been a touch more mixed since but have offered plenty of positives, with Day hitting the top 25 on his last two appearances, and Ko recording two top-10s in her last five.

Ko hasn't quite been at her best with the long game, but she's been exceptional on and around the greens, ranking 3^rd in SG: Putting and 3^rd in SG: ATG. This in many ways mirrors Day's own stats for the year, ranking 21^st in SG: ATG and 59^th in SG: Putting for 2025.

That short-game expertise drove this pairing to a one-shot victory in 2023, and they returned to finish a commendable 6^th in defence last year. Furthermore, Ko is a two-time winner of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon (in 2014 and 2022), meaning this partnership has more winning form at the course than any other team in the field.

2 pts Neal Shipley & Maja Stark to win @ 20/1

This year’s US Women’s Open champion Maja Stark has rediscovered form towards the end of the season. Having made a positive debut in this event in 2024, I’m hoping she’ll be the perfect partner for the talented Neal Shipley, who tees it up at Tiburon for the first time.

Shipley’s talents first caught everyone’s attention when he took top-amateur honours at both The Masters and US Open last year. His first full season as a professional in 2025 has seen him claim two titles on the Korn Ferry Tour – helping him earn a spot on the PGA Tour in 2026 – and he signed off that season with another impressive performance in the Tour Championship, finishing 3^rd.

Stark showed little form at the beginning of this season but then sprung a surprise to win the US Women’s Open at Erin Hills. Her form stuttered following that, though she has been much improved of late, arriving here with finishes of 5^th, 19^th and 24^th in her last four appearances.

The putter has played a major part in those enhanced results, and she’s driven the ball excellently all year, ranking 21^st due to an enviable combination of power and accuracy. Shipley is similarly long and straight, ranking 8^th in total driving on the Korn Ferry Tour, and sitting 1^st in birdie conversion, he’s a player that can get on a roll with the putter.

Shipley of course hasn’t played here before. However, Stark was 9^th in the event alongside J.T. Poston last year and having also produced her best-ever showing in the CME Group Tour Championship just a few weeks ago, finishing 19^th, her game is evidently sharp enough to perform.

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