Rickie Fowler’s birthday surprise, Sahith Theegala’s secret weapon | Rogers Report

Hello friends and happy Friday from the Grant Thornton Invitational! It was the perfect day in Naples, Fla., and I got a front-row seat to some seriously good golf. Before we get into all of the action from Round 1, take a look at this video of Jessica Korda perfectly explaining why the Grant Thornton Invitational is so cool.

I’m all-in on mixed team events. I’d love to see something with a match play format going forward.

Rickie’s birthday surprise

The fun started on the fist tee at Tiburon when Lexi Thompson presented Rickie Fowler with a cake for his 36th birthday. Props to the LPGA’s media team for picking up the cake, and word on the street is that somebody from their camp went the extra mile and put orange frosting on it themselves.

Not only did Fowler get a birthday cake on the first tee, he received yet another cake and balloons when he walked off the 18th green after he and Thompson carded a nine-under 63.

I guess if you’re as good at golf as Rickie Fowler is, you get two cakes! Must be nice. Also, fun fact: there were two birthdays in Fowler’s group today. Lexi Thompson’s brother Curtis turned 31 today and was on the bag for his sister at Tiburon. I hope he got at least one cake to celebrate the occasion!

Old pals team up

One of my favorite duos this week is that of Allisen Corpuz and Sahith Theegala, who met each other in the parking lot of a junior golf tournament when they were six years old. Their parents have been pals ever since.

Theegala joked that their team’s secret weapon this week is their dads. But not for the reason you might think.

To know Sahith Theegala is to know how supportive his family, especially his dad, Murli, is. So I was expecting that to be the reason he and Corpuz said their dads are their secret weapon this week. However, Theegala’s explanation for it was much funnier.

“Our secret weapon might be our dads. If I ever hit one offline, I think they got our back. Little shoulder kick back in the fairway.”

Theegala would love teeing it up with me if that’s all it takes to be a secret weapon. He was kidding of course, but he might be on to something for us everyday golfers.

Best presser of the day

I became a massive fan of both Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit today, and not because of their spectacular play (although that’s definitely a bonus).

The two of them had so much fun teeing it up together (I mean, how can you not when you birdie every hole on the front nine?) and had such great energy in their post-round press conference.

Tavatanakit: I feel like we kept it pretty chill, we just talked about random things. I feel like I haven’t played golf like this free in a while, so it is actually a really nice feeling. I feel very secure out there because I know I have a really good partner.

Knapp: It’s like I got to spend some time with Alison Lee a week ago so she gave me some insight on Patty. I feel that’s the overall theme of this week, kind of get to know one another and also just have a good time. Still go out there and compete obviously, but kind of have fun above all.

Q. What did Alison tell you about Patty?

Knapp: She said she can get a little upset at times and get down on herself maybe, so she was like just don’t let her get that way. I was like, that’s fine, I get upset, too. No, it was just kind of more so just like keep the conversation going and just make sure we have a good time between shots.

Tavatanakit: Basically, he’s just babysitting me.

I’m sure if they keep playing like they are, we’ll hear a lot more from them as the weekend goes on.