UCLA’s Patty Tavatanakit, Jake Knapp win Grant Thornton Invitational in wire-to-wire fashion

Patty Tavatanakit and Jake Knapp exuded confidence all week at the Grant Thornton Invitational in Naples.

You had a feeling these two UCLA Bruins would win, especially since they started Friday’s opening round with nine straight birdies in the scramble format. They fed off each other wonderfully throughout, complementing each other’s game while finishing each round atop the leaderboard.

“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.”

Knapp echoed similar sentiments.

“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 them before, and I feel like I couldn’t have gotten a better partner. I feel like we just got along perfectly, and the energy was the same. It was a really, really fun week.”

Despite having the same alma mater, Knapp is five years older than Tavatanakit. Their paths did not cross at UCLA; they only met this week.

But it seemed like they had known each other for years.

“Definitely having this connection, 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.’ But hopefully it’s safe to say we’re going to play again next year,” Knapp said.

“I think being able to build a friendship, especially in this sport; it’s such a small community. Everybody knows one another. To be able to build another close friend is pretty sweet.”

On February 25, almost exactly 10 months before Sunday’s win in South Florida, Knapp and Tavatanakit each won on the PGA Tour and LPGA.

Knapp won the Mexico Open, the first title of his career. Tavatanakit won the Honda LPGA Thailand in her home country.

“I always knew that; I just didn’t tell him. I didn’t want to jinx it,” Tavatanakit said.

“I was very close to mentioning it [on Saturday], but I was like, you know what, I’m going to wait.”

Good thing she did.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.