The United States is rolling through the LPGA’s International Crown tournament in South Korea, winning all four of their fourball matches through Friday and securing a spot in Sunday’s semifinals.
Americans Yealimi Noh and Angel Yin handed world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul her first-ever loss in the team competition, defeating Thitikul and Pajaree Anannarukarn 5 and 4. The Thai star had won six consecutive matches before running into the American duo at New Korea Country Club.
Lilia Vu and Lauren Coughlin completed the U.S. sweep for the day by beating Thailand’s Chanettee Wannasaen and Jasmine Suwannapura 3 and 2. That victory came after Thursday’s clean sweep against China, making the top-seeded Americans the only unbeaten team in the tournament.
The U.S. leads Pool A with four points and has already clinched a semifinal berth, but all teams will play a third set of fourball matches on Saturday.
Australia and China split their Pool A matches Friday. Minjee Lee and Stephanie Kyriacou earned a point for Australia with a 2 and 1 win over Zhang Weiwei and Liu Yan, while China’s Yin Ruoning and Ruixin Liu edged Hannah Green and Grace Kim 1-up.
In Pool B, Japan and Sweden also traded victories. Miyu Yamashita and Rio Takeda defeated Madelene Sagstrom and Ingrid Lindblad 3 and 2, but Sweden’s Maja Stark and Linn Grant answered by beating Mao Saigo and Ayaka Furue by the same margin.
England’s Charley Hull delivered the day’s most dramatic moment, sinking a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to give her and World teammate Lydia Ko of New Zealand a 1-up win over South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim and Hye-Jin Choi. Jin Young Ko and Haeran Ryu halved their match with Taiwan’s Wei-Ling Hsu and Canada’s Brooke Henderson.
“I managed to whack it, but I don’t want to whack it too hard because I don’t want to have a fiddler coming back,” Hull said. “So just thought hole it and save the stress.”
The tournament format pits seven countries and a “rest of the world” team competing in two pools, with teams and players determined by the women’s world ranking. The top two countries from each pool advance to Sunday’s semifinals and final, which will consist of one foursomes (alternate shot) and two singles matches.
The International Crown is part of the LPGA’s Asian swing, which continues next week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia before concluding in Shiga, Japan from Nov. 6-9. Sei Young Kim won last week’s BMW Ladies Championship, also held in South Korea.
