The LPGA’s team match-play competition, the Hanwha Lifeplus International Crown, will take place this week at New Korea Country Club in Goyang-si, South Korea.
This is the fifth edition of the eight-team, 32-player event, which begins Thursday and will be contested over four days.
Thailand is the defending champion, beating runner-up Australia two years ago at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. South Korea (2018), U.S. (2016) and Spain (2014) are the other past winners.
New this year is the addition of a World team, which will include the top four players in the Rolex Rankings not on a qualifying team – Canada’s Brooke Henderson, England’s Charley Hull, Taiwan’s Wei-Ling Hsu and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko.
Here is everything you need to know about this week’s competition:
Format
The first three days will feature pool play and four-ball matches before the top two teams in each pool advance to a four-team knockout stage initially pitting the winners of each pool against the runners-up with matchups consisting of two singles matches and one foursomes match. There will be a third-place match in addition to the final on Sunday afternoon local time (South Korea is 13 hours ahead of ET).
In pool play, matchups will feature two four-ball matches; teams will receive one point for a win and a half-point for a tie.
All matches will scheduled for 18 holes with extra holes only used in knockout stage.
Tiebreakers
If two teams are tied for first after pool play, the following methods will be used, in order:
1. Head-to-head result between the two teams
2. Total number of matches won
3. Higher seed
If three or more countries are tied for first, or two or more are tied for second, a playoff will be used – for two teams: sudden-death, four-ball match play with two players per team; for more than two teams: sudden-death, four-ball stroke play with two players per team.
Pool assignments
Note that seedings were locked in on Aug. 4 before several withdrawals.
POOL A
1. U.S.
4. Australia
5. Thailand
8. China
POOL B
2. Japan
3. South Korea
6. Sweden
7. World
TV schedule
WEDNESDAY
10 p.m.-3 a.m. ET (Golf Channel)
THURSDAY
10 p.m.-3 a.m. ET (Golf Channel)
FRIDAY
10 p.m.-3 a.m. ET (Golf Channel)
SATURDAY
7:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
SUNDAY
Midnight-4 a.m. ET (Golf Channel)
Match schedule
Pool play matches will start from 8:15 p.m.-10 p.m. ET.
WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY
Pool A: U.S. vs. China
Pool A: Australia vs. Thailand
Pool B: Japan vs. World
Pool B: South Korea vs. Sweden
THURSDAY-FRIDAY
Pool A: U.S. vs. Thailand
Pool A: Australia vs. China
Pool B: Japan vs. Sweden
Pool B: South Korea vs. World
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
Pool A: U.S. vs. Australia
Pool A: Thailand vs. China
Pool B: Japan vs. South Korea
Pool B: Sweden vs. World
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
Semifinal – Pool A winner vs. Pool B runner-up, 6 p.m.-6:20 p.m.
Semifinal – Pool B winner vs. Pool A runner-up, 6 p.m.-6:20 p.m.
Final – Semifinal winners, midnight-12:20 a.m.
Third-place match – Semifinal losers, midnight-12:20 a.m. (off No. 10)
Team rosters
Here are the four-player rosters with player’s Rolex Ranking listed in parentheses.
U.S.
Angel Yin (10)
Lauren Coughlin (16)
Yealimi Noh (28)
Lilia Vu (33)
Japan
Miyu Yamashita (6)
Mao Saigo (9)
Rio Takeda (12)
Ayaka Furue (23)
South Korea
Hyo Joo Kim (8)
Haeran Ryu (14)
Hye-Jin Choi (21)
Jin Young Ko (22)
Australia
Minjee Lee (3)
Hannah Green (18)
Grace Kim (26)
Steph Kyriacou (42)
Thailand
Jeeno Thitikul (1)
Chanettee Wannasaen (45)
Pajaree Anannarukarn (85)
Jasmine Suwannapura (141)
Sweden
Maja Stark (15)
Madelene Sagstrom (40)
Ingrid Lindblad (50)
Linn Grant (52)
World
Lydia Ko (4)
Charley Hull (5)
Brooke Henderson (25)
Wei-Ling Hsu (96)
China
Ruoning Yin (7)
Weiwei Zhang
Yan Liu (104)
Ruixin Liu (120)
Withdrawals
Nelly Korda (U.S.), Ariya Jutanugarn (Thailand) and Patty Tavatanakit (Thailand) have all withdrawn since the initial team announcements on Aug. 4. Korda cited injury when she withdrew earlier this month. As noted previously, the team seedings did not change.
Not qualified
England, Taiwan and Spain are the previous International Crown qualifiers who did not make the eight-team field this year. England and Taiwan each competed in three of the previous four editions while Spain hasn’t made the field since winning in 2014. England and Taiwan are represented on the World team this year, though.
The highest-ranked players not qualified, aside from the WDs, are England’s Lottie Woad (11), South Korea’s Sei Young Kim (13), France’s Celine Boutier (19) and American Andrea Lee (20).
