It wasn’t the prettiest of matches, but the United States held on to their perfect record at the LPGA’s International Crown tournament with a perfect performance on Friday. The American squad cruised in their third and fourth fourball matches. Alongside those big wins, they have truly etched their name as one of the elite championship contenders in the event.
Through today’s quarterfinals, Minjee Lee and Stephanie Kyriacou continued that trend of success with the Australian pair defeating Zhang Weiwei and Liu Yan of China. They ended up going 2 and 1. Yin Ruoning and Ruixin Liu paired against Hannah Green and Grace Kim in a thriller that saw the Asian duo take the title. With a 1-up victory, they prevailed! That means Jin Young Ko and Haeran Ryu were able to finish half a point ahead after tying their match against Wei-Ling Hsu and Brooke Henderson, in large part thanks to Charley Hull and Lydia Ko, who pulled off a stunning 1-up win over Hyo Joo Kim and Hye-Jin Choi.
Highlights of the weekend included Yealimi Noh and Angel Yin’s soaring victory, the U.S. They went on to defeat Thitikul and Pajaree Anannarukarn of Thailand handily, 5 and 4. On Thursday, the Americans moved on to a pair of dominant wins over China. Lilia Vu and Lauren Coughlin beat Chanettee Wannasaen and Jasmine Suwannapura 3 and 2.
Those four points leave the U.S. on top of Pool A, all but locking them into a spot in Sunday’s semifinals. The format for the semifinals will be one foursomes (alternate shot) match and two singles matches. The first two teams of each pool go through to the semis, so every match continues to be high-stakes, high-level play.
Beyond the U.S. team’s achievement, there were many inspiring performances throughout the tournament. Watch as Miyu Yamashita and Rio Takeda carry their team to Jury selection win. They took down Madelene Sagstrom and Ingrid Lindblad, 3 and 2 to claim the title. Rookies Maja Stark and Linn Grant combined to carry Sweden to first place. They defeated Mao Saigo and Ayaka Furue in the final, 3-2.
“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,” – Charley Hull
The tournament is gaining attention as players showcase their skills in South Korea, where Sei Young Kim recently won the BMW Ladies Championship just last week. The hype around the International Crown only intensifies as teams compete for the championship crown.
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