NAPLES, Fla. — Andrew Novak made three straight birdies on the again 9 and Lauren Coughlin shot a modified four-ball 9-under 63 for a three-shot victory and Novak’s second group title of the 12 months on the Grant Thornton Invitational on Sunday.
Up till the par-5 seventeenth at Tiburon Golf Membership, the problem was primarily Chris Gotterup and Jennifer Kupcho.
Gotterup and Kupcho each missed the inexperienced in tough spots and needed to work onerous for par. Novak and Coughlin had been within the remaining group behind them, however Novak sank a 6-foot birdie putt and held a two-shot lead heading into the ultimate gap.
Coughlin’s birdie putt set a match report of 28-under 188.
They completed three spots forward of Gotterup and Kupcho (63), Denny McCarthy and Nelly Korda (63), and Michael Brennan and Charlie Hull (65).
Novak additionally received the one group occasion on the PGA Tour, the Zurich Basic of New Orleans, with Ben Griffin. He joked that successful the blended group title, which mixes gamers from the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour, can be a “modern-day Grand Slam.”
Novak mentioned he did not notice how shut it was till he noticed the leaderboard on the thirteenth inexperienced, however even then he knew he and Coughlin had one benefit.
“We had extra holes than anybody else,” he mentioned of the variety of second-half birdie probabilities. Novak sank a 7-foot birdie putt on No. 13, adopted by two 10-foot birdie putts on No. 14 and 15, and the de facto clincher on No. 17.
In modified four-ball, each gamers hit their tee photographs and play the remainder of the course with their opponent’s golf ball with the bottom rating on the cardboard.
Novak and Coughlin every earned $500,000. This was the most important win for Coughlin, who received two LPGA races final 12 months.
Korda missed a virtually 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th gap, which might have given her and McCarthy a little bit of hope, however the worst case state of affairs was a joint second place between them. Korda could have one other probability to win this 12 months when he groups up together with his father at subsequent week’s PNC Championship.
