The Grant Thornton Invitational, a notable stop on the LPGA and the PGA Tour schedules, returns this week at the Tiburon Golf Club. Being the only mixed-team event on the schedule for both tours, the event is looked forward to not just for its unique format but for the rare opportunity it provides to see top players from both tours compete side by side.

The event features 32 players in the field, divided into 16 teams battling it out over three days of competition beginning December 12th. Over three days, teams rotate through three different formats of play while competing for equal prize money and equal visibility. But because this is an annual event since 2023, and features some of the best players in the world, you must wonder if it offers World Ranking Points like other events on the tours.

The answer is no. Despite being co-sanctioned by both tours, the tournament is not considered an official event. As a result, performances here do not count toward the season-long standings on either tour. Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points are not awarded, and Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings points are not given, even though the field includes some of the top players in the sport. The reason is that it is tough to make an individual assessment of players when they are playing as a pair.

What the Grant Thornton Invitational does offer is a significant purse. The 32-player field competes for a total of $4 million over 54 holes, with the winning team splitting $1 million. While the prize money is classified as unofficial and does not count towards the official earnings of the players at the end of the year, the financial incentive and the rare mixed-team format are the main motives.

For many players, it also serves as a competitive but low-pressure environment late in the year, giving them a chance to fine-tune their game or build momentum ahead of the next season. Even without world ranking points on the line, the Grant Thornton Invitational continues to stand out as one of the most distinctive weeks on the golf calendar.

This is the third consecutive year in which the event is being held, having been launched in 2023 as the first co-sanctioned PGA–LPGA tournament since the JCPenney Classic in 1999. Previously, the event ran only on the PGA Tour, with a few invitees from the LPGA, and was called the QBE Shootout. But that was until 2022, and it became a mixed team event on both calendars the following year.

While it’s clear that the event this week in Naples won’t be offering any points to players, it is not the only stop on each of the calendars that does not offer points.

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Other events like the Grant Thornton Invitational 2025

The Grant Thornton Invitational isn’t the only team event on the schedule that doesn’t award world ranking points. On the LPGA Tour, the Dow Championship follows a similar structure. It’s a two-player team event, and like most non-individual formats, it falls outside the criteria for earning Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings points.

While the tournament is popular for its unique scoring format, it remains classified as a non-ranking event for the same reason, that the results for World Ranking points can’t be measured as individual performance.

On the PGA Tour, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans operates under the same principle. Despite being an event with a strong field offering FedEx Cup points, it does not offer Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points because it is played as a team competition. The OWGR system is in place to evaluate players based on their individual scoring and performances.

So, players taking part in team events do not earn any points and, in fact, sometimes even lose their rankings in the process. As a result, both the Dow Championship and the Zurich Classic, like the Grant Thornton Invitational, provide competitive opportunities but without influencing world ranking positions.