American duo Lauren Coughlin and Andrew Novak secured victory at the third edition of the Grant Thornton Invitational after a birdie-filled Sunday at Tiburón Golf Club.
After Coughlin rolled a birdie putt on the final hole, the pair won by three shots, closing off a 9-under 63 to follow previous rounds of 57 and 68. Their early dominance saw them at the top of the leaderboard on Sunday, a stroke ahead of the chasing team Charley Hull and Michael Brennan. Coughlin and Novak opened with a birdie at the 1st, and rolled two more back-to-back at the 5th and 6th. But fellow American team Jennifer Kupcho and Chris Gotterup put up a challenge with six birdies on the front nine to grant them the lead at the summit. By the turn, they led by two strokes, but Coughlin and Novak made their fourth birdie at the 10th to halve their advantage. They then holed three straight birdies at the 13th, 14th and 15th to overtake Kupcho and Gotterup once more.
Climbing up the leaderboard, Nelly Korda and Denny McCarthy made a string of three birdies of their own through holes 12 to 14, to find themselves level with Kupcho and Gotterup. However, with no late surge from the chasing teams, Coughlin and Novak rolled in two closing birdies to claim victory at 28 under in the LPGA and PGA TOUR’s only mixed-team event of the 2025 season.
“I think again we kind of knew we had a lot of holes left, so we knew that we could make plenty of birdies coming in, we’ll have plenty of chances,” two-time LPGA Tour winner Coughlin said afterwards. “Andrew putted really great today, made a lot of birdies for us. It was a lot of fun.”
Novak was quick to credit and admire his playing partner’s reliability when it came to winning over the weekend.
“I had some pressure taken off of me, I think, coming down the stretch,” Novak said. “Lauren is probably the single most reliable golfer I’ve ever played with. I knew no matter what, I was going to be hitting from the fairway. I had a little rough patch off the tee in the middle, but got it squared away on the back nine. We were able to ring off some birdies.”
The victory counts as Novak’s second Tour-sanctioned team event triumph this year, after his Zurich Classic of New Orleans win alongside Ben Griffin. Their overall 28 under score had also set a new 54-hole tournament scoring record to successfully send them off into the offseason.
Second was shared between Kupcho and Gotterup, alongside Hull and Brennan and Korda and McCarthy. Korda is set to tee it up one last time for the year with her father at the PNC Championship.
“I’m playing with my dad next week, so that’s always so much fun,” the World No. 2 said. “The memories that you create there playing alongside your dad is – I mean, those are core memories that you share forever. To see his competitive spirits come back and be alive during that one week is a lot of fun.”
What is the next event?
The new PGA TOUR season tees off with the Sony Open taking place between the 12-18 January at the Waialae Country Club in Hawaii.
The new LPGA Tour season tees off with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions taking place between 29 January – 1 February at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Florida.