After a disastrous year that has seen her fall from LPGA Tour champion to barely retaining her tour card, Kiwi Lydia Ko is on the verge of her first 2023 victory - albeit an unofficial team event.
Ko and Aussie Jason Day hold a two-stroke lead over Americans Nellie Korda and Tony Finau after two rounds of the 54-hole, mixed format event at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.
After trailling their rivals by two through the opening 'scramble' format, the trans-Tasman partnership produced a six-under-par 66, playing alternate shots in a foursome format.
The pair picked up a shot on the front nine, sandwiching a bogey between two birdies on holes 4-6, before producing five birdies on the back nine to ace the field at 20-under.
Korda and Finau share second with Irishwoman Leona Maguire and American Lucas Glover, with Americans Lexi Thompson and Rickie Fowler another two shots back.
The teams will contest a modified four-ball round on the third day, with both players teeing off, but switching balls for the rest of the hole, with the lower score counted.
The tournament is the first joint promotion between the PGA Tour (men) and LPGA Tour (women), since John Daly and Laura Davies won the 1999 JC Penney Classic in 1999.
Ko and Day are both former world No.1s, with the Aussie also a former PGA Championship winner. In fact, Day chalked up a 'runner-up grand slam' by finishing second in the 2023 British Open, completing his collection of second placings in Majors.
He also won his 13th PGA Tour title at the Byron Nelson tournament in May.
Ko and Day only met this week, but are the only pair in the field to play a practice round together before the event.
"I have no worries," said Ko of the tournament format. "Jason's pretty much hit 90-something percent of the fairways.
"I've gotten to his his ball today and he's gotten to hit mine. In ways, this was like a pre-warm-up for what tommorrow's going to be.
"I was joking before I knew what it was going to be, like, 'Oh man, Jason's got to hit from places he's never hit from, maybe a little further back'. We're actually going to do that."
After sweeping the major LPGA honours and returning to the world top ranking 12 months ago, Ko, 26, has struggled this year, earning just US$247,335 (NZ$403,550), compared to US$4.3 million in 2022.
Her best performance was third at the BMW Ladies Championship in October, she managed just two top-10 finishes - the other was her first outing of the year in Thailand - and missed four cuts.
After winning the Vare Trophy for scoring average for the second time with 68.99 in 2022, she shot two strokes a round more (71.25) this year.
The Grant Thornton Invitational offers a US$4 million purse, with the winners splitting $1 million. On the LPGA Tour, only Majors and the tour championship offer more.
