Grant Thornton Invitational Preview: Korda and Finau lead the betting

As the golf betting landscape continues to evolve, another new event has been added to the schedule. The Grant Thornton Invitational will see 16 mixed teams of some of the best women and men in professional golf team up and go toe to toe for an equal slice of the pie - an overall 4-million-dollar prize fund.

The LPGA and PGA TOUR’s best will line out in the new mixed team Grant Thornton Invitational - a unique co-sanctioned tournament. The 32-player event will be held at Tiburon Golf Club at The Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida and will support various charities.

The Format

The Grant Thornton Invitational is a three round contest and will consist of an 18-hole Scramble on Friday, 18 holes of Foursomes Alternate Shot on Saturday and 18 holes of a Modified Four-Ball format on Sunday where players will have to play their partners ball after the tee shot until the hole is finished.

The Course

Tiburon Golf Club features two 18-hole courses designed by Greg Norman and the Gold Course is set to host. It features five sets of tees and can stretch nearly 7,400 yards playing to a par of 72. The yardage for the event is set to be much less than that and played around 6,600 yards or so when Amy Yang won at Tiburon Golf Club just a few weeks ago on the LPGA Tour at the CME Group Tour Championship. She shot a final round 6-under 66 for a total of -27 and we can expect a low scoring event this week with par breakers the dominant theme. Tiburon’s Gold course features five sets of tees. Let’s look at some of the leading contenders.

The Contenders

Women’s world no.1 Lilia Vu teams up with Joel Dahmen (22.0) and watch out for the Swedish pairing of Madelene Sagstrom and Ludvig Aberg (7.2) – the big hitting youngster who has started his professional career on fire. We have an all-English pairing of Justin Rose and Charlie Hull near the top of the market at 11.5, while Irish sensation Leona Maguire teams up with Lucas Glover at 16.0 in the betting.

It’s Nelly Korda and Tony Finau however who are favourites for the Grant Thornton Invitational on SBK at 6.4 in the betting. Korda has now dropped to no.5 in the world after injury problems, but she recorded a t8 finish here at the CME Champs a few weeks ago. Big Tony now has 6 wins on the PGA Tour and comes to Tiburon in good form following a t4 at the Hero World challenge.

The Value Pick

Sahith Theegala asked Rose Zhang to be his partner for the Grant Thornton Invitational before she was even a pro and says he’s “playing chess”. He is the type of player to turn up when he feels like it and something tells me he’ll like this event and teaming up with Zhang. Rose grew up in the same area in California and even trains at the same gym so expect these two youngsters to gel nicely. Sahith owns a recent win at the Fortinet while Zhang made history by winning in her first event as a LPGA Tour pro. This might be the best value team at 12.0 on SBK.

Recommended Bet

Back Sahith Theegla and Rose Zhang to win @ 12.0