Goyang, South Korea — The United States had a perfect performance at the LPGA International Crown Tournament on Friday, winning the third and fourth four-ball matches and ending No. 1 ranked Gino Titikul’s undefeated streak in team play.
Americans Yerimi Noh and Angel Yin defeated Titikul and Pajari Anannarkhan 5-4, marking Titikul’s first loss after six consecutive wins in this tournament. Later, Lilia Vu and Lauren Coughlin won the second American four-ball match held at New Korea Country Club, defeating Chaneety Wanasen and Jasmine Suwannapura 3-2.
On Thursday, top-seeded America defeated China twice. The United States, the only undefeated team in the tournament, leads Pool A with four points, clinching a spot in Sunday’s semifinals.
All eight teams will play the third set of four-ball matches on Saturday.
On Friday, Australia and China split the Pool A four-ball matches. Mingyi Li and Stephanie Kyriacou defeated Zhang Weiwei and Liu Yang 2-and-1, and China’s Ying Ruoning and Liuxing Liu defeated Australia’s Hannah Green and Grace Kim 1-up.
In Pool B, Japan and Sweden also split Friday’s games. Miyu Yamashita and Rio Takeda defeated Madelen Sagstrom and Ingrid Lindblad 3-2, while Maya Stark and Lynn Grant defeated Mao Saigo and Ayaka Furue 3-2 to give Sweden the victory.
The World Team has one point with a 1-2 win over South Korea, and leads Pool B with three points with two wins and two draws.
England’s Charlie Hull sank a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole, giving her and world teammate Lydia Ko of New Zealand a 1-up victory over Kim Hyo-joo and Choi Hye-jin. Ko Jin-young and Liu He-ran drew in their matches against Taiwan’s Su Wei-lin and Canada’s Brooke Henderson.
“I managed to hit it, but I don’t want to hit it too hard because I don’t want the fiddler to come back,” Hull said. “So consider cutting a hole and reducing stress.”
The tournament format sees seven countries and “rest of the world” teams competing in two pools. The teams and their players were determined by the women’s world rankings.
The top two countries from each pool will advance to Sunday’s semi-finals and final, which will consist of one foursomes match (alternating shots) and two singles matches.
Last week, Kim Sei-young won the BMW Ladies Championship, which was also held in South Korea. The LPGA Asia Swing continues next week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and concludes in Shiga, Japan from November 6th to 9th.
