Novak groups with Coughlin to win Grant Thornton

NAPLES, Fla. — Andrew Novak made three straight birdies on the again 9, and Lauren Coughlin completed off their 9-under 63 in modified fourballs for a three-shot victory Sunday within the Grant Thornton Invitational, the second crew title this 12 months for Novak.

They had been challenged primarily by Chris Gotterup and Jennifer Kupcho till the par-5 seventeenth at Tiburon Golf Membership.

Gotterup and Kupcho each missed the inexperienced in powerful spots and needed to work exhausting for par. Novak and Coughlin had been within the closing group behind them, and Novak poured in a 6-foot birdie putt that gave them a two-shot lead going to the ultimate gap.

Coughlin’s birdie putt helped them set a event document at 28-under 188.

They completed three forward of Gotterup and Kupcho (63), Denny McCarthy and Nelly Korda (63), and Michael Brennan and Charley Hull (65).

Novak additionally received the Zurich Traditional of New Orleans with Ben Griffin, the one crew occasion on the PGA Tour. He jokingly mentioned it might be the “modern-day grand slam” to get the mixed-team title that pairs PGA Tour and LPGA Tour gamers.

Novak mentioned he did not get a way of how shut it was till seeing a leaderboard on the thirteenth inexperienced, and even then knew he and Coughlin had one benefit.

“We had extra holes than anybody else,” he mentioned, referring to the variety of birdie possibilities down the stretch. Novak holed a 7-foot birdie putt on the thirteenth, adopted by a pair of 10-foot birdie putts on the 14th and fifteenth and what successfully was the clincher on the seventeenth.

In modified fourballs, each gamers hit tee photographs, then play the opposite’s golf ball the remainder of the best way with the low rating relying on the cardboard.

Novak and Coughlin every earned $500,000. It was the biggest payoff for Coughlin, who received twice on the LPGA final 12 months.

Korda missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th gap that might have given her and McCarthy a little bit hope, and at worse put them alone in second. Korda will get yet one more likelihood at successful this 12 months, teaming along with her father subsequent week within the PNC Championship.