Host S. Korea seeks 2nd title at International Crown
By Yoo Jee-ho
SEOUL, Oct. 21 (Yonhap) -- Hosting the International Crown, a biennial LPGA match-play competition, for the second time this week, South Korea will look to win the event for the second time as well, up against some of the best that women's golf has to offer with all five major champions of this season in action.
New Korea Country Club in Goyang, just northwest of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province, will provide the stage for the fifth edition of the International Crown for a four-day run starting Thursday.
The competition was first held in 2014 and has produced a different champion each time. Spain won the inaugural tournament, followed by the United States in 2016. South Korea hosted the event in 2018 in Incheon, just west of the capital city, and won it for the first time.
After the 2020 event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Thailand was crowned the champion in 2023.
This year's International Crown will feature seven countries -- South Korea, the United States, Japan, Thailand, Sweden, Australia and China -- and the brand-new World Team, to be represented by four players each. Team World will be made up of one player each from the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa and Oceania.
South Korea, seeded third behind the U.S. and Japan, will feature Kim Hyo-joo (world No. 8), Ryu Hae-ran (No. 14), Choi Hye-jin (No. 21) and Ko Jin-young (No. 22). Kim, Ko and Choi were teammates on the 2023 team that finished tied for fifth, while Ryu will make her International Crown debut this week.
Kim and Ryu have each won a tournament on the LPGA Tour this year. Kim won a Ladies European Tour event at New Korea Country Club in May this year.
Ko is a 15-time winner with two major titles but hasn't won since May 2023. Choi is winless since joining the tour in 2022 but she has had eight top-10 finishes this year.
The countries' seeds were determined based on their players' world ranking positions as of Aug. 4 and did not change despite recent withdrawals.
The U.S. earned the top seed but world No. 2 Nelly Korda withdrew earlier this month with an injury. She was replaced by Korean American Yealimi Noh, who tied for fifth at the BMW Ladies Championship, also held in South Korea, on Sunday. Noh will join, among others, former world No. 1 and two-time major winner Lilia Vu and world No. 10 Angel Yin.
The Japanese squad will have two of the five major champions for this season in Mao Saigo (the Chevron Championship) and Miyu Yamashita (the AIG Women's Open). Ayaka Furue is also a major champion, as the winner of the 2024 Amundi Evian Championship. A two-time tour winner Rio Takeda rounds out the quartet.
No. 4 seed Australia features two players of Korean descent, Minjee Lee and Grace Kim, both of whom won a major this year. Hannah Green is coming off a fifth-place finish at the BMW Ladies Championship, her first top-10 showing since April.
Thailand, No. 5 seed, will be without two members from its 2023 championship squad in Ariya Jutanugarn and Patty Tavatanakit, who both withdrew with injuries and were replaced by Jasmine Suwannapura and Pajaree Anannarukarn.
But the Thai team is led by world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, the only player to win more than one tournament on the tour this year.
Maja Stark, who won the U.S. Women's Open this year for her first career major, is the top player for the sixth-seeded Sweden.
The World Team will be led by world No. 4 Lydia Ko (New Zealand), fifth-ranked Charley Hull (England), 14-time winner Brooke Henderson (Canada) and former Olympian Hsu Wei-Ling (Chinese Taipei).
Former world No. 1 Yin Ruoning is the top player for the eighth-seeded China.
Teams seeded 1, 4, 5 and 8 will be in Pool A, and seeds 2, 3, 6 and 7 will compete in Pool B.
From Thursday to Saturday, the teams will play fourball matches in a two-on-two format. Each player will hit her own ball and the lower score of the two teammates will count as the team's score on each hole.
South Korea will open pool play against Sweden on Thursday and then will face the World Team on Friday and Japan on Saturday. A match win is worth one point, and a half point will be awarded to each team in case of a tie.
The top two teams from each pool will advance to the semifinals for Sunday morning. The two pool winners will each play the runners-up from the opposing pool in two singles matches and one foursome match. In the foursome, each team plays one ball, with the two teammates taking turns until the hole is completed.
The final is scheduled for Sunday afternoon and will be played in the same format as the semifinals. The winning team will receive US$500,000, with each player getting $125,000.
jeeho@yna.co.kr
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