They both played college golf at UCLA. They both hit the ball miles. They both won on their respective tours on February 25. Now together, Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit, one of the longest-hitting duos in the field, won the Grant Thornton Invitational Sunday at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.

Knapp and Tavatanakit followed an opening 58 with rounds of 66-65 to shoot 27-under-par total and top Jeeno Thitikul and Tom Kim by a shot. Thitikul just won $4 million at this same course just three weeks ago when she captured the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. Jennifer Kupcho and Akshay Bhatia were third.

“It was nice to put the cherry on top of my 2024 season to win my last event of the year,” Tavatanakit said. “It’s definitely going to be a nice feeling to take some time off. And to be able to do it alongside Jake, it’s just been so fun and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner.”

Said Knapp: “Great way to end the year before Christmas. I feel like in an event like this you never really know what your partner’s going to be like when you haven’t met ’em before and I feel like I couldn’t have gotten a better partner. I feel like we just got along perfectly energy was the same. It was a really, really fun week.”

Still in its infancy, the year-end event has been a success, putting LPGA and PGA Tour stars together to play different formats. Round 1 is a scramble. Foursomes is used for the second round. The final round is a modified four-ball format where both players hit their tee shot then switch balls for their second shots and play until that ball is holes. The lowest score counts for the team on each respective hole.

The winning duo opened with an eagle in the final round but then only made one more birdie over the next eight holes. But they made four birdie on the final nine holes, including a stretch of three in four holes, to cruise home. Kupcho and Bhatia eagled the 17th hole but lost their chance to win with a bogey on the last hole. Although Thitikul and Kim birdied the last two holes, and the final victory was only by one shot, Knapp (30) and Tavatanakit (25) were well in control.

But Tavatanakit wouldn’t let her new partner get ahead of himself.

“I made kind of an early call coming up 18 and I said, ‘Same time next year,’ and she said, ‘It’s not done yet,’” Knapp said. “But hopefully it’s safe to say we’re going to play again next year.”

Back to February 25. Tavatanakit was playing in her native Thailand at the Honda LPGA Thailand event and held a five-shot lead in the final round. But she squandered it, regrouped with two late birdies to shoot 67 and beat Albane Valenzuela by a shot. Later that day, Knapp, a nightclub bouncer just three years ago, entered the final round of the Mexico Open at Vidanta tied for the lead. He started with two bogeys in the first three holes, only made two birdies the rest of the way to shoot even-par 71, but it was good enough to top Sami Valimaki to earn his first PGA Tour title.

“I always knew that, I just didn’t tell him,” Tavatanakit said about winning on the same day. “I didn’t want to jinx it. I was very close on mentioning it yesterday, but I was like, you know what, I’m going to wait.”

A day later, the fast friends were holding the trophy.

Main Image: Carmen Mandato