Lydia Ko and Jason Day arrived with momentum and history on their side, but this time the competition was all about Andrew Novak and Lauren Coughlin at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. The inaugural Grant Thornton champion duo finished tied for 13th, far from the podium they had hoped to go back on. Yet Ko’s response spoke volumes about what this partnership means.

“Lucky to be able to partner up with @jasondayofficial for the third consecutive year! Regardless of the result had a blast with the team 💛🔼 Thank you @grantthorntoninvitational for this amazing opportunity! Always proud to represent you!” read the caption of her Instagram post shared with a carousel of pictures.

While the appreciation is one thing, the story on the leaderboard was quite different.

Jason Day and Lydia Ko tied for 13th at 17-under par, 11 strokes behind champions Coughlin and Novak, who set a tournament record at 28-under par. While they performed well in Friday’s scramble format, struggles in Saturday’s alternate shot round hurt their chances.

The tournament featured different formats each day: scramble on Friday, alternate shot on Saturday, and modified four-ball on Sunday. Coughlin and Novak excelled in all three. But the breakthrough came on Sunday with a 9-under 63, winning by three shots over teams tied for second at 25-under, including Nelly Korda and Denny McCarthy.

For their efforts, the duo split a respectable but modest payout.

Jason Day and Lydia Ko won $127,500. Meanwhile, Coughlin and Novak split the $1M winner’s prize, taking home $500,000 each. For Coughlin, it marked the largest single-tournament payday of her LPGA career.

Even if the result wasn’t what she wanted, Ko’s Instagram post showed that she and Day still respect each other. Even before the tournament, they both praised each other’s skills.

“I don’t know how much longer I’ve got with her,” referring to Lydia Ko’s impressive career. The 13-time PGA Tour winner also said, “I’m not sure when she’s going to retire. At some point she’s going to retire, at some point, so I’m trying to hang onto her shirt for as long as I can.”

That 2023 Grant Thornton victory proved transformative for Ko. It ignited a remarkable 2024 campaign that culminated in her induction into the LPGA Hall of Fame. She credits Day’s presence as both motivating and inspiring. Day, for his part, calls being around Ko special.

“It’s always nice to be around greatness,” the major champion said.

Beyond inspiration, they’ve become students of each other’s games.

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Learning from greatness: What Ko and Day see in each other

The 38-year-old particularly admires Ko’s putting stroke, calling it “off the charts,” but he’s also been studying her wedge work.

“The way she practices her wedges, she puts coins out on the driving range,” Day explained. “Like anyone that plays the game, it’s very difficult to control flights, trajectories, spins. You know, it’s hard. Like she seems to do it very, very well. The way that she does it is very simple. That’s kind of the way that my mind thinks when I’m playing golf, I try to keep things as simple as possible, and she does. She just repeats it over and over again, every time she has a range session and that’s why she’s so good. I’m working towards that, let’s say that.”

And Ko? Well, she has been equally observant of Day’s pre-shot routine and the consistency behind it.

“Just seeing how meticulous he was with that and how consistent that was, I’m sure he didn’t just wake up one day and found that routine, right? He found what worked, does he need to be faster, slower, what does he need to incorporate,” Ko said. “Just seeing that in person, you get a better idea of that, so that was really cool.”

She even attempted to adopt Day’s chipping technique last year, though it didn’t translate.

“I tried to follow Jason’s chipping technique last year, and I realized it’s not for me,” she admitted. “It’s pretty impressive. I feel like Jason has a unique but very consistent style of short game but hits so many different types of shots with that. I didn’t know that was possible. I think I would have to restart my golfing short game career if I was to do this Jason style. It was really cool to kind of see that and try that and go, ‘wow, I wonder how he does that.'”

Jason Day and Lydia Ko have learned to respect each other and grow as individuals through their competition. Their T13 finish will not be the only part of their Grant Thornton legacy; their three straight appearances as the inaugural champions will be a big part of it, too.