The Grant Thornton Invitational was a precedent-setting sports event that brought the PGA TOUR and LPGA together for equal prize and visibility. It also served as the first-ever co-sanctioned event between the two organizations. By bringing top male and female professional golfers together for the first time in 25 years for a mixed team competition, we shined a light on gender parity, united the professional golf world, and turned our brand values into an unforgettable experience—all while showcasing the game of golf as a vehicle for positive change and inclusivity through sport.

While the fight for pay equity has made headlines and shaped the future of several global sports in recent years, professional golf has lagged in closing the gap. Despite massive growth recently in LPGA purses, the average PGA TOUR purse in 2023 was 4.25x larger than the average LPGA purse. Coverage of women’s golf is significantly behind male coverage as well, with LPGA players typically getting 10% of golf TV airtime in comparison. And it had been almost 25 years since a mixed-team event appeared on the Tour calendars. This was our opportunity.

With the Grant Thornton Invitational, we aimed to tackle inequity in professional golf with an event that drives parity and unites the sport. Through collaboration, we incorporated input from both leagues, listened to our Grant Thornton Ambassadors and industry partners and ultimately brought the collection of ideas to life.

It was essential that our mixed team event, something the golf world was hungry for, addressed the current inequity in the golf world. We did this by delivering:

-An equal purse distribution, the largest non-Major, non-Tour championship purse and the 7th largest purse on the LPGA.

-Golf’s only TV broadcast with equal visibility for PGA TOUR and LPGA players.

-A tournament format reflective of players’ voices that highlighted team chemistry, collaboration, and complementary skills to assure the parity was evident in competition. The format balanced credibility of the competition with broadcast entertainment value.

-Equal buy-in as the first-ever co-sanctioned competition by both the PGA TOUR and LPGA

In creating the Grant Thornton Invitational, we wanted to do more than bring top LPGA and PGA TOUR talent together in an exciting, innovative way. We wanted to reimagine what a golf tournament could be and create a level playing field where female athletes earned equal visibility, reward, and esteem alongside their male counterparts. We wanted the world to see the gender gap between golfers—and, more importantly, close it. The Grant Thornton Invitational did this by removing those barriers, bringing men and women together to share the spotlight and accolades on a level playing field. Our vision: Make the Grant Thornton Invitational synonymous with visible proof of progress and use it to build a future for golf that is representative of our commitment to parity and equality in the workplace and in sport—to build bridges between what golf is and what it can be, for everyone.

Disparities between male and female golfers are documented across media and players alike. The Grant Thornton Invitational was a unique opportunity to live our mission and make an impactful statement with the entire golf world watching by:

-Harnessing the growing momentum around women’s sports. The highly vocal and broad response from the golf community and media landscape in the lead-up months solidified our intuition: the sports world was eager for a mixed team golf event.

-Collaborating with players on format, ensuring parity and equality were central to play.

-Committing to a $4M purse, split equally between the male and female teams (an LPGA payout trailing only the Major and Tour Championships).

-Featuring our brand ambassadors representing diversity in age, gender and culture, equally across media and promotion.

-Crafting our visual brand to embody our mission, including a “pair of tees” secondary logo (playing on “parity”) and a trophy symbolizing equality.

Grant Thornton believes barriers are part of the course, but they should never be part of the game. That’s why we created the Grant Thornton Invitational—to build bridges between what golf is and what it can be for everyone. We didn’t simply revamp an existing tournament; we made an unmissable statement about our values by:

-Uniting the PGA TOUR and LPGA with a historic, mixed-team event and equitable playing format that captured the attention of the golf world. 

-Prioritizing gender parity across event coverage, promotion, marketing representation and payout structure, tackling disparities between PGA TOUR and LPGA players.

-Delivering our equality-focused message and achieving tangible proof that we’re growing the game.

The event not only moved the needle for gender parity and representation in golf; it solidified our commitment to driving inclusivity and providing equal opportunity for all.

The Grant Thornton Invitational was our opportunity to challenge expectations and walk our talk on DEI in golf. There was no aspect of our tournament that was not thoughtfully connected to our brand purpose, values and mission to grow the game, including:

Visual identity: A value-driven design in every sense, embodying equality, openness and forward thinking. It set us apart from other golf tournaments and made our mission visible.

Tournament logo: Sophisticated, but playful; the open, inviting font visually softened the exclusive nature of an invitational, and served as our most public-facing asset.

“Pair of tees” secondary logo: Playing on the word "parity,” our tees embody our mission for progress and appeared across all tournament signage, digital/social assets, and custom apparel worn by tournament participants.

Trophy: Characterized by twisting gold and silver bands toward a mobius shape, it symbolizes our vision of bringing the best of golf together for equality.

As a tentpole moment for the Grant Thornton brand and the most public display of our firm’s DEI commitments, Grant Thornton’s brand awareness skyrocketed through 3.95M social impressions, 3B media impressions, 1,271 tournament placements, 391% increase in Share of Voice in December, with 99% positive media coverage sentiment.

YOY metrics included the following INCREASES: 78% in attendance, 30% in broadcast viewership, 127% in concession sales, 566% in on-site media attending.

Search for Grant Thornton outpaced competitors during tournament week and exceeded RSM Classic search (a competitor’s PGA TOUR event) by nearly double.

Our clients (50% female) compared their experience to other corporate events a 9.7/10, with a 94 NPS average.

With $11.4M in wins plus an $80.5M+ pipeline, we’re forecasted to achieve 6:1 ROMI (vs. 4:1 goal) but most importantly, the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational set a new par for representation, parity, and inclusivity in golf.

As a professional services firm, it’s table stakes to have DE&I goals and objectives for sports sponsorships, but we were determined to do more than the typical diversity-driven activations and achieve an outcome of tangible proof that actually changes the game, by:

-Uniting the PGA TOUR and LPGA with a barrier-breaking, mixed team, co-sanctioned event highlighting an equitable playing format that captured the attention of the golf world.

-Collaborating with players on format, ensuring parity and equality were central to play. No other professional golf event incorporates players’ voices like this.

-Prioritizing gender parity across the event’s coverage, promotion, marketing representation and payout structure.

-Achieving our pay equity goal by providing equal rewards to both men and women compared to average weekly 4.25x disparity between PGA TOUR and LPGA purses.

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Highlighting the brand’s mission through a game-changing professional golf tournament experience with record-setting YOY achievements.