England’s Charley Hull and playing partner Michael Brennan finished tied for second after the final day of the Grant Thornton Invitational mixed-team event, three shots behind the winners.
The pair were one shot off the lead going into the final round after going 17 under par on day one and one under on day two.
Andrew Novak made three straight birdies on the back nine and Lauren Coughlin closed out their nine-under 63 in modified fourballs for a three-shot victory on Sunday, the second team title this year for Novak.
They were challenged primarily by Chris Gotterup and Jennifer Kupcho until the par-five 17th at Tiburon Golf Club, where both Gotterup and Kupcho missed the green in difficult positions and had to scramble for par.
Novak and Coughlin, in the final group, saw Novak hole a six-foot birdie putt that gave them a two-shot lead heading to the 18th. Coughlin’s birdie helped them set a tournament record at 28 under. They finished three ahead of Gotterup and Kupcho (63), Denny McCarthy and Nelly Korda (63), and Brennan and Hull (65).
Novak, who also won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Ben Griffin — the only team event on the PGA Tour — joked that winning the mixed-team title that pairs PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players would be a “modern day grand slam.”
He said he didn’t realize how close the leaderboard was until seeing it on the 13th green, and believed he and Coughlin had an advantage because they had “more holes than anyone else,” meaning more birdie opportunities down the stretch. Novak holed a seven-foot birdie putt on the 13th, followed by 10-footers on the 14th and 15th, and a key play on the 17th.
In modified fourballs, both players tee off, then play the other’s ball for the remainder of the hole with the lower score counting on the card.
What is the Grant Thornton Invitational?
The 54-hole competition is a mixed-team event featuring 16 LPGA Tour and 16 PGA Tour professionals competing together in a co-sanctioned tournament.
The three-day event uses three different team formats and allows the 32-player field to compete for equal prize money and visibility. It is the second successive year the tournament has appeared on the schedule, having been launched in 2023 as the first co-sanctioned event between the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour since the JCPenney Classic in 1999.