Grant Thornton Invitational 2025: Dave Tindall's three each-way picks up to 14/1

• 14/115.00 Clark/Thompson both have strong form in Florida

• 12/113.00 Gotterup/Kupcho have both played well in team events

• 12/113.00 Defending champions Knapp/Tavatanakit are worth a R1 bet

Introduction to the Grant Thornton Invitational

This is year three of Grant Thornton's sponsorship of the end-of-season pairs event.

We're getting used to that moniker now after the tournament was previously known as the QBE Shootout, Franklin Templeton Shootout and Shark Shootout.

The difference from those days is that two years ago the format changed, with each of the 16 teams featuring one PGA Tour golfer and one LPGA Tour player.

Victory went to Australian Jason Day and New Zealand's Lydia Ko in 2023 before American Jake Knapp teamed up with Thailand's Patty Tavatanakit to hoist the silverware last year.

Winning scores? 27-under last year and 26-under in 2023.

The format produces those crazy 54-hole scores as each pair plays 18 holes of scramble, 18 holes of foursomes and 18 holes of fourballs.

The event, which runs from Friday to Sunday, is played at Tiburon Golf Club in Florida, a 7,382-yard par 72 with Bermuda greens.

Bet 1: Wyndham Clark/Lexi Thompson @ 14/115.00

It may well be that those at the front of the betting will be hard to beat.

There are four pairs at single-figure odds - Denny McCarthy/Nelly Korda at 11/26.50, Corey Conners/Brooks Henderson at 13/27.50, Jason Day/Lydia Ko at 13/27.50 and Brennan/Charley Hull at 15/28.50.

But we'll look a little further down the betting for our two each-way picks.

First up is the duo of Wyndham Clark and Lexi Thompson, both major winners of course.

Clark admitted his 2025 was one to forget but said this at last week's Hero Wold Challenge when asked how the offseason had been treating him.

"Honestly, really good. Coming off a really poor year and I've worked really hard. The nice thing is kind of like the last two, three weeks I've started to see some improvement, so I'm excited about that."

He finished tied eighth in the 20-man Hero field, ranking 7th for SG: Putting and holing more feet of putts made than anyone.

Two seasons ago in Florida he had finishes of 5-2-2 across the Valspar, Arnold Palmer and Players Championship so Clark has had some good times in the Sunshine State.

Another little plus is a third place in the Zurich Classic pairs event alongside Beau Hossler in 2023.

Thompson is a Florida native with a win at Tiburon, the regular host of the Tour Championship.

In fact, from 2017 to 2021 her finishes in that event were 2-1-6-5-8.

A couple of weeks ago she finished 19th in this year's edition, showing her prowess on the Bermuda greens by ranking 8th for SG: Putting. 

She's played this event twice, finishing sixth in 2023 and 14th last year (both with Rickie Fowler), but note that Thompson finished runner-up at the Dow Championship back in late June.

The significance of that? It's the pairs event on the LPGA Tour and she was also eighth in 2024.

Add in a winning record across her six Solheim Cup appearances and Thompson should be a strong partner.

Back them at 14/115.00 with each-way terms of 1/5 Odds, 4 Places.

Bet 2: Chris Gotterup/Jennifer Kupcho @ 12/113.00

One of Jennifer Kupcho's four LPGA Tour wins came in a pairs event - the aforementioned Dow Championship in 2022.

That was the same year she won her first and, so far, only major while her latest victory came at this summer's Shoprite LPGA Classic.

A three-time Solheim Cup star, Kupcho also finished third in this event last year when playing alongside Akshay Bhatia. The pair finished just two strokes behind the winners.

Kupcho, who was runner-up at The ANNIKA (also played in Florida) in her penultimate LPGA Tour start last month, has Chris Gotterup for company this time.

Gotterup was one of the hottest players on the planet back in the summer when he followed up a two-shot win in the Scottish Open with a superb solo third in The Open Championship at Royal Portrush. 

He added 10th places in two of his next four starts, the second one coming in elite company at the Tour Championship.

At last week's Hero World Challenge, he was playing for the first time since 40th at the Baycurrent in the first part of October and, to put it mildly, showed some rust.

He was dead last after three rounds but only five players bettered his closing 5-under 67 so hopefully that will have provided a spark.

The 26-year-old has played in the last two editions of the Zurich Classic pairs event and finished in the top 12 both times - first with Austin Eckroat in 2024 and then alongside Quade Cummins (World No.278) this year.

Gotterup can go really low, as shown by a 61 in round two of the Scottish Open, so hopefully he and Kupcho, an outgoing sort of personality, can gel from the off.

Bet 3: Jake Knapp/Patty Tavatanakit for FRL @ 12/113.00

Rather than try and eke out another each-way bet from the 16 teams, I'll try a first-round leader punt (1/5 Odds, 4 Places).

In truth, there's not much to go at and this probably falls into the category of fun bet.

But there is some logic in backing defending champions Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit.

They opened with a 14-under 58 to win this market last year and, unlike many of the other pairs who might take a while to gel, we know that these two will totally hit it off.

Knapp, let's recall, opened with a 59 at the Cognizant Classic in another trip to Florida earlier this year 

Tavatanakit has just finished seventh in the Tour Championship at this week's course while she's also produced plenty of fast starts in recent times.

Knapp suffered some tragic news in September when his girlfriend Makena White died.

He hasn't played since so we can only wish him well and hope that this week might just help the healing a little.

It will be good to cheer him on. 

*You can follow me on Twitter @DaveTindallgolf

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