For one week in December, the battle lines between the PGA and LPGA Tours dissolve, replaced by a high-stakes, $4 million shootout where cross-tour chemistry is king. The Tiburón Golf Club is hosting the Grant Thornton Invitational in Naples, Florida, for the third consecutive year, a unique mixed-team showdown, featuring 32 of the world’s best players. They team up across three challenging formats, including Scramble, Foursomes, and Modified Four-Ball to test their chemistry.

This year’s field boasts a massive 137 combined career victories among the Tour stars. Nine of those trophies were hoisted during the 2025 season alone. The field features 10 major champions, including this year’s U.S. Women’s Open winner, Maja Stark. Past champions, such as Jason Day and Lydia Ko (2023) and Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit (2024), are also invited to the event.

Among those, we have selected the top 3 duos by their combined Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings (WWGR) and Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). Let’s look at that list:

Top Stories

Max Homa Comes Clean on Past Tensions With Justin Thomas: ‘Hated Each Other’

R&A Breaks the Open’s 90-Year-Old Tradition to Avoid Olympics Clash

‘Taken Too Early’: Phil Mickelson Honors Late Golf Great 21 Years After His Demise

Dustin Johnson to Breathe a Sigh of Relief as Declining Career May Finally Be Saved

Colin Montgomerie Drew Huge Praise for Guiding Team Europe to Victory While Battling Illness

Lydia Ko and Jason Day

Lydia Ko enters this week as the undisputed queen of the Tiburón Golf Club, as the New Zealander already owns two CME Group Tour Championship titles on this exact golf course. Although Ko’s 2025 season didn’t start as big as her last season, following her historic Hall of Fame induction at just 27 years old, where she won the Gold Medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024 and won three PGA Tours. She won the HSBC Women’s World Championship early this year.

Jason Day brings a calm and veteran presence to this dynamic “Kiwi-Aussie” partnership as the former World No. 1 and 2015 PGA Champion remains one of the game’s premier putters, which will be crucial during the alternate-shot format. Day and Ko have already proved their formula works by winning the inaugural event of the Grant Thornton Invitational.

These former World No. 1 players are the event’s ambassadors, boasting the most individual career titles in the field, alongside Ko’s 23 victories and Day’s 13 victories.

Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners

The Canadian Powerhouse will be a match to watch in the field, as Brooke Henderson ranks 25th in the WWGR, and Corey Conners ranks 27th in the OWGR. Henderson enjoyed a massive resurgence during an emotional 2025 campaign, where Canada’s winningest professional golfer won the CPKC Women’s Open title on home soil for the second time in August, marking her 14th career LPGA win.

And Corey Conners, who is also known as a “flusher” for hitting the ball on a rope, was T8 at the Masters Tournament and T10 at The Open Championship this year. The two-time Valero Texas Open winner also consistently ranks among the tour leaders in approach play. This duo has knocked on the door here twice already before, finishing second in the 2023 and T4 last year in the Grant Thornton Invitational.

Nelly Korda and Denny McCarthy

One can’t ignore Nelly Korda’s name from any list of current contenders, even when she has not won a single trophy for the whole season. She finished the year ranked second in the WWGR, but went winless in 20 starts throughout the year, with only a heartbreaking runner-up finish at the U.S. Women’s Open. But Korda arrives in Florida, recording seven top-5 finishes and completing third at the CME Group Tour Championship most recently. Plus, the American superstar has already racked up 15 career LPGA victories so far and owns two major championships and an Olympic Gold Medal from 2021.

Korda’s best result in the Grant Thornton Invitational came in 2023, when she finished T4 while pairing with Tony Finau. This week offers Korda a perfect chance to finally lift a trophy and make a happy ending to her year.

Denny McCarthy is the secret weapon that makes this team so dangerous.

McCarthy is widely regarded as one of the best putters on the PGA Tour and currently ranks No. 57 in the world after the 2025 season. He has yet to win a major, but previously finished T4 with Megan Khang in his first appearance.

The field will be packed with other dangerous teams.

Defending champions Patty Tavatanakit and Jake Knapp return after dominating the 2024 event. Charley Hull teams up with rookie sensation Michael Brennan. Lexi Thompson and Wyndham Clark also form a great duo. Plus, keep an eye on the resilient duo of ‘Andrea Lee and Billy Horschel’ and ‘Jennifer Kupcho and Chris Gotterup.’

Horschel battled back from hip surgery to regain his top form this year, and Kupcho just won the $1 million Aon Risk Reward Challenge, proving she is the smartest tactician in the field.