NAPLES, Florida: Patty Tavatanakit holed a 25-foot birdie putt and Jake Knapp gave them the lead on the next hole with a tough pitch to set up birdie as the UCLA duo combined for a 7-under 65 on Sunday for a one-shot victory in the Grant Thornton Invitational.

They won on their respective tours on the same day this year — Knapp at the Mexico Open, Tavatanakit at the Honda LPGA Thailand — and were equally impressive as a team, especially down the stretch at Tiburon Golf Club.

Jeeno Thitikul, who won the LPGA finale at Tiburon last month for the $4 million prize, holed an 8-foot birdie putt on the final hole as she and Tom Kim shot 64 to finish alone in second.

Akshay Bhatia and Jennifer Kupcho made a mess of the 18th hole for their lone bogey in the modified fourballs format and finished third.

The final hour could have gone to any four teams — the Canadian tandem of Corey Conners and Brooke Henderson shot 62 and were briefly tied for the lead, though running out of holes.

Knapp and Tavatanakit, who started with a two-shot lead, fell behind for the first time all day when Bhatia holed a 30-foot eagle putt on the par-5 17th.

The format had each player hit tee shots, switch balls for the next shot and then complete the hole. Knapp’s tee shot on the par-3 16th climbed onto the green, and Tavatanakit poured in the left-to-right breaking putt for birdie to tie the lead.

“I putted well this week,” Tavatanakit said. “Everything has been fun. The chemistry has been really good.”

Both were out of position off the tee at the easy 17th, with Knapp in the water. Taking the tee shot of Tavatanakit, he hit from the native area to short of the green into a slight swale. His pitch settled 3 feet away for birdie and a one-shot lead over Bhatia and Kupcho.

Ahead on the 18th, Bhatia’s approach came up woefully short and into the water. Kupcho missed her approach to the right, and her putt ran down a slope about 10 feet by. Bhatia tried to play twice from the water. Kupcho badly missed her par putt.

That gave the UCLA tandem a two-shot lead, and a simple par — both missed birdie putts they didn’t need from about 10 feet — put them at 27-under 189. Each collected $500,000 from the $4 million purse.

Kim and Thitikul finished birdie-birdie for second place, worth $280,000 to each.

RIYADH: Fueled by nine birdies in the morning and a clutch tee shot in the late afternoon, Lee Chieh-po won the grueling 36-hole LIV Golf Promotions finish on Saturday to claim a coveted spot in the league’s 2025 season.

The 30-year-old becomes the first player from Chinese Taipei to earn full-time status in LIV Golf and hopes his victory and presence in the league will inspire others from his country.

“It means a lot for our players,” said the Asian Tour regular, who won for the first time at this year’s International Series Thailand. “LIV Golf, I think, is many players’ dream. I go there and they will come.”

Lee — also known by his English name, Max — shot a two-round total of 10 under at Riyadh Golf Club to win by two strokes over Asian Tour player Taichi Kho and relegated LIV Golf player Branden Grace in the 20-player final-day field. A total of 92 players began the week.

All players finishing inside the top 10 will receive exemptions to all 10 tournaments on The International Series in 2025. Six players on the final leaderboard did not previously hold that status: American Ollie Schniederjans and Australians Brett Coletta and Jack Buchanan, who shared fourth at 5 under; Germany’s Max Rottluff, solo seventh at 4 under; and Korea’s Soomin Lee and England’s David Horsey, part of the four-way tie for eighth at 3 under.

They were all chasing Lee after he shot a 7-under 64 in his morning round that included nine birdies, with four in his final five holes. That gave him a two-shot lead over Schniederjans, who posted a bogey-free 66.

Lee remained in control throughout the afternoon, making the turn with a one-shot lead over Grace, who had just made his fourth birdie of the day at the 11th hole.

Lee seemed to be pulling away with a three-stroke lead late in the round, but a bad approach at the par-4 16th resulted in a bogey. “I hit it way poor to the left, and I was laughing, like, what am I doing?” Lee said.

When Grace and Kho finished with birdies at the 18th, his lead was reduced to a single shot going into the par-3 17th, the most difficult hole on the back nine this week.

But he stepped up and delivered the biggest shot of the day, his tee ball nearly rolling into the cup. After making birdie, he stayed away from trouble at the 18th to close it out.

“Just tried to reset my mind,” he said afterwards. “Hole No. 17, that shot is very important. I hit a very good tee shot.”

Grace was watching in the clubhouse as Lee finished his round. He was hoping to regain his spot with Stinger GC with a win this week, but the team could still make a business case for keeping him in the lineup.

“Played good, gave it everything,” Grace said. “Now I’ll go home and have a holiday.”

Schniederjans, the former top-ranked amateur who is playing his way back from injuries that slowed his career, was encouraged by being in the mix this week.

“I’m very confident about where everything is heading,” he said. “I had to hit a lot of cool putts and shots under pressure, so it was really nice to see that. It did give me even more confidence. But I have a lot of confidence in my future.”

As for Lee, his confidence is sky-high. A hip injury last year forced him into swing changes, but a consistent stretch of play this season that culminated in the victory in Thailand — when he rallied to overtake LIV Golf player Peter Uihlein — is an indication of his talent.

Now he’s ready to compete in LIV Golf and embrace everything the global league has to offer.

“On the LIV Tour, every player is very strong,” he said. “I think I can learn something. I will learn something.”