Jeeno Thitikul, Tom Kim, Nelly Korda and Daniel Berger at the Grant Thornton Invitational
Getty Images
Hello friends and happy Saturday night from Naples, Florida! I write to you all from my hotel, where dozens of 11 and 12-year-old boys are on some sort of field trip. I’m lucky enough to be in the room they chose to all congregate outside of as soccer balls are kicked up and down the hallway. There was a lot of very unexpected rain at the Grant Thornton Invitational on Saturday, but that didn’t keep the teams at Tiburon from having a blast. The two that stuck out to me the most on Saturday were team Nelly Korda and Daniel Berger as well as team Tom Kim and Jeeno Thitikul.
I respect it! I can only assume it’s something hilarious. We may not have gotten their team name, but we did get a lot of fun information about the two of them during their post-round interview on Saturday. Korda and Berger had high praise for each other’s games, and Korda even joked that she will star her partner on the PGA Tour app.
That might be the ultimate compliment, although I’d probably be a little nervous to know that the World No. 1 is checking in on my scores. I was tempted to ask Korda what other players she has starred on the PGA Tour app, but I decided to ask what she and Berger have learned about each other this week instead.
Korda immediately chimed in that Berger had “chirped her warm up.” She went on to explain that she doesn’t hit a shot for 30 minutes before her tee time, and that Berger was surprised by it. Hey, Korda won seven times this year so I’d say the results speak for themselves. She could be on to something.
We also learned that Korda enjoys dogsledding and that Berger is on a journey to 185 pounds so he’s crushing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out on the course. I’m not very intrigued by dogsledding, as I don’t think it’s crossed my mind since I did a project on Balto in elementary school.
Tom Kim and Jeeno Thitikul
There’s only one team in the field that has been coordinating outfits all week at the Grant Thornton Invitational, and that’s Tom Kim and Jeeno Thitikul. According to Thitikul, she got to pick what color they wore on Friday and Saturday, and Kim gets to choose for the final round.
Watching them play golf reminded me of my high school golf days (although admittedly, this is at a much, much higher level). They were having so much fun out there and it’s clear that they’re great pals. It made me miss team golf!
Do yourself a favor and check out these moments from their post-round interview.
Some highlights include Thitikul explaining that she was trying to get in touch with Kim last week so they could coordinate their outfits, but it turns out she had the wrong number. I also overheard Kim’s caddie, Paul Tesori, referring to Thitikul as “Jeeno Woods,” so I asked for an explanation on that nickname.
“We were deciding Jeeno Scheffler or Jeeno Woods and we decided obviously with 82 wins and 15 majors, she played like Tiger Woods today,” Kim said. That’s some high praise!
The Grant Thornton Invitational might be finishing up today, but worry not, my friends. We’ve got another team event next week at the PNC Championship, where I’ll be on-site and ready to write about Team Woods, Team Korda and more.