{"id":346368,"date":"2025-12-13T23:59:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T23:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/346368\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T23:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T23:59:17","slug":"lauren-coughlin-andrew-novak-leading-mixed-team-event-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/346368\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauren Coughlin, Andrew Novak leading mixed-team event in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAPLES, Fla. — Lauren Coughlin<\/a> holed a bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 17th hole Saturday, and she and Andrew Novak<\/a> teamed for a stout 4-under 68 in foursomes to build a one-shot lead going into the final round of the Grant Thornton Invitational.<\/p>\n

It’s another chance for Novak to pick up a team title this year. He partnered with Ben Griffin<\/a> to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. The Grant Thornton is the only mixed-team event.<\/p>\n

They were at 19-under 125 and leading by one shot over Charley Hull<\/a> and Michael Brennan<\/a>, who were poised to share the lead until a three-putt bogey on the final hole when Hull lipped out from just outside 3 feet. They shot 71.<\/p>\n

Lexi Thompson<\/a> and Wyndham Clark<\/a> were two shots behind after finishing with eight straight pars for a 72.<\/p>\n

The final round is modified fourballs. Each player tees off, then they switch golf balls and stick with that ball the rest of the way, with the low score counting.<\/p>\n

It should lead to lower scoring, although the Canadian duo of Brooke Henderson<\/a> and Corey Conners<\/a> did their part in the more difficult foursomes. They managed seven birdies and briefly shared the lead until a bogey on the 18th for a 67.<\/p>\n

That left them three shots behind, along with Nelly Korda<\/a> and Denny McCarthy<\/a> (70) and Jennifer Kupcho and Chris Gotterup<\/a> (70).<\/p>\n

The Kupcho-Gotterup and Coughlin-Novak teams each made double bogey on the par-5 14th. Coughlin helped her side recover when she holed out from the right bunker on the 17th.<\/p>\n

“Four birdies and an eagle, that’s really, really solid for alternate shot,” Novak said.<\/p>\n

He was keeping it light, as always, particularly when asked about how badly he wants to win the Grant Thornton Invitational to go along with his Zurich Classic title.<\/p>\n

“Some are calling it the modern day Grand Slam — Zurich, Grant Thornton,” Novak said. “Obviously, thinking about my legacy a little bit tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

Hull has said she likes being in the chasing position, and this week is no exception.<\/p>\n

“Obviously it would have been nice going with the lead into the final round,” she said. “But we can make plenty of birdies out there tomorrow.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NAPLES, Fla. — Lauren Coughlin holed a bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 17th hole Saturday, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-346368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}