And the struggle continues for the ‘Queen of Bradenton.’ For the third straight year, Nelly Korda and Co. left Tiburón Golf Club empty-handed. Korda and Denny McCarthy started Sunday three shots behind the leaders and played an impressive 9-under 63 to close the show, but the math just did not work out. The winning duo of Andrew Novak and Lauren Coughlin matched their score shot-for-shot. So, Korda and McCarthy finished exactly where they started: three shots back.

After a winless season, they did not come to Florida just to sign hats and take selfies. So, the polite mask slipped off during their post-round interviews when McCarthy did not mince words about their “almost” Sunday performance.

“I’ll start. I think right now we’re both a little frustrated just because we’re both very competitive and like to win. We know we probably left some shots out there,” the 32-year-old said.

Korda and McCarthy got off to a great start, making five birdies in their first nine holes. And at a point in time, after making three back-to-back birdies on holes 12, 13, and 14, the pair tied for the lead. Then they bogeyed on the par-5 17th hole, and on the 18th, it looked like Korda might hole out for eagle, but she eventually missed a 10-foot birdie putt.

But the frustration does not overshadow their genuine chemistry. McCarthy called playing with Korda a “treat” and highlighted the bond between their caddies.

“But playing with her is always a treat. I like her caddie a lot, Jay. He’s great. My caddie gets along with him great. Just so much fun being out there with them and competing. Her game is phenomenal. I learned a lot three years ago, I continue to learn a lot from her playing with her the last three days. We just had a lot of fun,” McCarthy added.

Coming to Korda, even she didn’t dodge the frustration: “Yeah, same for us, same for me.”

“I mean, Jay and I have so much fun with Denny and Derek. It was so nice to kind of get the band back together and team up again,” the 27-year-old added, who paired with three different partners in all three editions of the Grant Thornton Invitational.

Korda also noted how her caddie, Jay, even follows McCarthy at PGA Tour events, and she is also a “lifelong fan” of McCarthy’s short game.

So, for Korda, the week successfully built a good friend, even if it didn’t build her trophy case. But the trophy didn’t slip away by accident from Korda and McCarthy; it was snatched by a team playing perfect golf.

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Novak and Coughlin played the best golf on the field

Andrew Novak and Lauren Coughlin crushed the previous scoring record by posting both the low start by a winner (57) and the low finish by a winner (63) at the Grant Thornton Invitational. They started Sunday with a slim one-shot lead but refused to play defensively. Novak caught fire on the back nine, draining clutch birdies on holes 13, 14, and 15, and Coughlin finished off their 9-under 63 in style with a birdie on the par-4 18th hole.

Novak, who also won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the only team event on the PGA Tour, paired with Ben Griffin, jokingly said it would be the ‘modern-day grand slam’ to win the only mixed-team title that pairs the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour. Several other duos also tried to keep pace but ultimately ran out of gas.

Jennifer Kupcho and Chris Gotterup pushed hard until a disaster on the 17th hole killed their momentum, and they finished tied for second at 25-under alongside the explosive duo of Charley Hull and Michael Brennan. Hull’s team also showed early fireworks with a historic 55 on Friday, but cooled off late, scoring 71 and 65 in the last two rounds. The Canadian “Dream Team” of Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners also failed to launch on Sunday. They threatened early but couldn’t find enough birdies and ended the tournament with a fifth-place finish at 23-under par.

Meanwhile, the defending champions, Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit, put up a good fight on Sunday with a 10-under 62. But they started too far back to contend and ended up in ninth place. But Lydia Ko and Jason Day, surprisingly, struggled to find any momentum and finished near the bottom at 17-under par. Lexi Thompson and Wyndham Clark ended tied for 10th after a hot start.

And with all of that, Nelly Korda officially closes the book on a statistically wonky 2025 season. She racked up nine top-10s this year but failed to lift a single trophy. However, she gets one final “fun” event next week at the PNC Championship with her dad. After that family reunion, Korda turns her focus to the 2026 season opener in January, where she will obviously look to finally snap this frustrating trophyless streak.