The U.S. team beats the Chinese team, and Titicul perfectly wins the international championship
GOYANG, South Korea — The United States beat China twice in four-ball play on the first day of the LPGA International Crown Championship Thursday, while world No. 1 Gino Titicul remained perfect in the team event.
Thitikul and partner Pajaree Anannarukarn of Thailand beat Australia’s Hannah Green and Grace Kim 1-1 at the New Korea Country Club. This is Thitikul’s sixth consecutive victory in the team competition.
Australia’s Minjee Lee and Steph Kyriacou beat Chanettee Wannasaen and Jasmine Suwannapura by 2 points on the opening day to tie with Thailand.
American players Yealimi Noh and Angel Yin defeated Chinese players Liu Yan and Yin Ruoning 5-4, and Lilia Vu and Lauren Coughlin defeated Zhang Weiwei and Liu Ruixin 1-1.
The United States is the only team to win both of its first games.
Japan took an early lead over Team World in two four-ball matches, but Charlie Hull and Lydia Ko birdied the final hole to level with Rio Takeda and Miyu Yamashita. Subsequently, Brooke Henderson and Wei-Ling Hsu regrouped and defeated Ayaka Furue and Mao Saigo 2-1, scoring their opponents 1.5 points.
When Hull birdied the 12th hole to win, Hull and Ko pulled the score back to 1 point, and the two maintained a 1-point gap until the par-4 18th hole, when Ko finally tied with a 25-foot birdie putt.
“I thought the only way we could extend the game was if I holed the putt on 17,” Gao said. “With the distance we had, it wasn’t a guaranteed birdie putt at all, but I felt like I shouldn’t let the team down. Charlie made a lot of good birdie putts to keep the game going, and I was just here for the last two.”
The host team got off to a good start, with South Korea’s Kim Hyo-joo and Choi Hye-jin defeating Sweden’s Maya Stark and Lynn Grant 3-2, while Ko Jin-young and Yoo Hai-ran tied with Ingrid Lindblad and Madeleine Sagerström.
In the competition format, seven countries and one “Rest of the World” team compete in two groups: Group A is the United States, China, Australia and Thailand, and Group B is South Korea, the World Team, Japan and Sweden. Teams and players are determined by the Women’s World Rankings.
The addition of the World Team allows players such as New Zealand’s Ko and Canada’s Henderson to compete.
The four-ball tournament continues on Friday and Saturday. The top two national teams in each group advance to Sunday’s semifinals and finals, which include a foursomes match (alternating shooting) and two singles matches.
Thitikul was a member of the Thai team that won the International Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco in 2023 and is the only player in the field to win the event. She has won six times on the LGPA Tour, including victories at the Mizuho Americas Open this season and the Shanghai Championship two weeks ago.
Sei Young Kim won the BMW Women’s Championship in South Korea last week. The LPGA Asia Tour continues next week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and concludes in Shiga, Japan, from November 6-9.
