Minjee Lee and Steph Kyriacou have produced a tenacious fightback to keep Australia’s women’s golf aces in the hunt for the multi-million-dollar International Crown title in South Korea.
Not for the first time, Lee and Kyriacou rallied brilliantly to recover from two holes down with seven to play to beat Chinese pair Yan Liu and Weiwei Zhang two-up in Friday’s crucial opening fourball match.
With teammates Hannah Green and Grace Kim narrowly losing to former world number one Ruoning Yin and Ruixin Liu on the 18th hole, Australia split the points 1-1 for the second day running in Seoul.
And once again, Lee and Kyriacou’s precious point could prove telling entering Saturday’s final pool matches.
The top-seeded United States lived up to their favouritism to be the only team to secure a spot in Sunday’s semifinals after recording a second straight 2-0 win.
Friday’s victims were defending champions Thailand, with Angel Yin and Yealimi Noh inflicting a first defeat in seven Crown outings on world number one Jeeno Thitikul.
Stream End Game with Tony Armstrong on ABC iview
Yin and Noh crushed Thitikul and Pajaree Anannarukarn 5 and 4, while Lauren Coughlin and Lilia Vu beat Chanettee Wannasaen and Jasmine Suwannapura 3 and 2 to propel the USA to the top of Pool A with a perfect four points.
Australia (two points) are second in Pool A ahead of a showdown with the Americans on Saturday.
Runners-up to Thailand at the 2023 edition of the prestigious biennial event, the Australians likely need to one win of their remaining two fourball matches to book a semis berth.
“It’s going to be pretty exciting. I think we have a good chance come tomorrow, and hopefully we can put up a good show,” Lee said.
With one point each, Thailand and China will clash in the other Pool A tie knowing only a 2-0 victory will guarantee semifinal qualification for either side.
Australia being in the box seat to progress seemed unlikely when Lee and Kyriacou were staring down a two-hole deficit early on the back nine at New Korea Country Club.
But four birdies from world number three Lee dragged the dynamite duo into the lead before Kyriacou sealed victory on the 17th hole.
“We struggled a little bit in the start. Our games were a little bit off to start the day, and kind of came around maybe middle of the back nine,” Lee said.
The pair are now four from five together in the competition.
“We kind of had a little pep talk there on 11, a few swear words so probably can’t repeat it here,” Kyriacou said.
“Yeah, we started off really slow and didn’t really give ourselves many chances and then Minjee started stumping it and I started holing some things and then it went our way.
“We gelled.”
AAP
