Charley Hull, Lexi Thompson teams shoot near-perfect* rounds in Grant Thornton

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There is an asterisk in this headline for good reason. If you pair professional golfers together in a scramble format in which they get to choose the best result of every shot, and give them benign weather and pristine greens, you’re rolling out a green carpet for crazy low numbers.

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That has been the case in first two editions of the Grant Thornton Invitational, which puts together top PGA Tour and LPGA players in two-person teams and gives them a scramble for the first of three rounds. In the inaugural tournament in 2023, Nelly Korda and Tony Finau opened with a 56 and didn’t win. Last year, Patti Tatakanavit and Jake Knapp had the scramble’s best score of 58 and went on to lift the trophy.

Neither of those cards would have held up on a spectacular day for scoring at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.

Charley Hull and Michael Brennan had a chance to shoot golf’s perfect score of 54 heading into the 18th hole and settled for a par to score 17-under 55, and then major winners Lexi Thompson and Wyndham Clark shot 27 on the back to match them with the record-low score, and those duos held the lead after Day 1.

Both teams recorded two eagles, with the highlight being Brennan rolling in a long bomb on the 14th hole. After opening birdie-par, Hull and Brennan either eagled or birdied the next 14 holes before finishing par-birdie-par. Thompson and Clark shot eight under for the first nine holes, then eagled the 10th to start a seven-under run over the next eight holes. They forged the tie when Clark made a birdie putt at the 18th. Both teams are playing together for the first time.

Asked what went well on the day, Clark offered one word: “Everything.”

Thompson added, “I feel like we ham-and-egged it pretty well out there. He played some amazing golf and holed out a bunker shot and stuck it close on a few holes. We really just fed off each other.”

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Thompson, 30, played a limited schedule this season (13 events) and notched two top-10s, while Clark, the 2023 US Open champion, spoke recently of his frustrations with a poor season in which he never contended and had only two top-10s in 24 starts. But the 32-year-old has been encouraged of late after working on his ball striking. He’s been impressed with that facet of Thompson’s game this week.

“I feel like we kind of have similar games to be honest,” Clark said. “She hits it really far off the tee, and if one of us is in play, we’re significantly past kind of the competitors ,and we have our advantage there. She’s a great putter.

“Yeah, really I felt like our games complement each other perfectly and I didn’t think there was any flaws in her game. Yeah, we had a lot of fun out there.”

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Wyndham Clark and Lexi Thompson react after making a birdie putt on the third hole. Johnnie Izquierdo

Hull admitted she had no idea how she’d play this week while working on some offseason swing changes. “I come on Tuesday and I could not even keep the ball on the planet,” she said. “So I was actually pretty nervous today. Actually, it worked out pretty well.”

Brennan probably knew more before this week about Hull – given her LPGA stature and sizeable social media presence – than the Englishwoman did about Brennan, though he certainly has made a splash as a pro. The 23-year-old out of Wake Forest won his first start as a pro while playing on a sponsor’s exemption in the Bank of Utah Championship in late October.

Before the Thornton began, there was a comical video of players learning things about each other as they wrote answers on a white board. They agreed that they’d call their team the “Gym Bros” because they both like to work out. Then it got a little testy. Hull said that her first impression of Brennan was that he was “cool.” Though she joked that that might change by the end of the week. Brennan described his partner as “intense,” and that seemed to take her off-guard. “Really, you think I’m intense?” Hull said before starting to laugh. “I’m the most laid-back person in the world. I can’t give a f—k about anything.”

Hull didn’t let it go. She took over the post-round interview by asking Brennan if he still thought she was intense. He rallied with a few compliments: “Yeah, I mean, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. … Like, you’re focused, which is good. … You seem like you care.”

Hull seemed satisfied with the answers, and she was asked if she still thought Brennan was cool. “I think intense and cool,” she said. “It’s growing on me.”

After a 55, they should be just fine together.