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GOYANG, South Korea — The United States beat China twice in four-ball matches Thursday on the first day of the LPGA’s International Crown tournament while world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul remained perfect at the team event.
Thitikul and partner Pajaree Anannarukarn of Thailand beat Hannah Green and Grace Kim of Australia 1 up at the New Korea Country Club. It was Thitikul’s sixth consecutive win in the team competition.
The win came after Australia’s Minjee Lee and Steph Kyriacou beat Chanettee Wannasaen and Jasmine Suwannapura 2 up to split the points with Thailand on the opening day.
Americans Yealimi Noh and Angel Yin routed Liu Yan and Yin Ruoning of China 5 and 4 and Lilia Vu and Lauren Coughlin beat Zhang Weiwei and Liu Ruixin 1 up.
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The U.S. was the only team to win both its opening matches.
Japan led the World team early in both four-ball matches but Charley Hull and Lydia Ko birdied the final hole for a tie with Rio Takeda and Miyu Yamashita. Then Brooke Henderson and Wei-Ling Hsu rallied for a 2-and-1 win over Ayaka Furue and Mao Saigo to pick up 1.5 points against their opponents.
Hull and Ko got back to 1 down when Hull won the 12th hole with a birdie, and the pair remained 1 down until the par-4 18th hole, ultimately tying the match when Ko buried a 25-foot birdie putt.
“The only way I thought we were going to extend the match was for me to hole the putt on 17,” Ko said. “At both our lengths, it’s not a guaranteed birdie putt at all, but I felt like I shouldn’t let the team down. Charley holed so many good birdie putts that kept the match going, and I just came for the ride for the last two.”
The host team got off to a good start when South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim and Hye-Jin Choi beat Sweden’s Maja Stark and Linn Grant 3 and 2 and Jin Young Ko and Haeran Ryu finished tied with Ingrid Lindblad and Madelene Sagstrom.
Under the tournament format, seven countries and a “rest of the world” team compete in two pools: the U.S., China, Australia and Thailand in Pool A, and South Korea, the World team, Japan and Sweden in Pool B. The teams and their players were determined by the women’s world rankings.
The addition of a world team allows for players such as Ko of New Zealand and Henderson of Canada to play in the tournament.
Four-ball matches continue on Friday and Saturday. The top two countries from each pool advance to Sunday’s semifinals and final that consist of one foursomes (alternate shot) and two singles matches.
Thitikul was a member of the Thai team in 2023 that won the International Crown at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco and is the only player in the field who has won the event. She is a six-time winner on the LGPA Tour, including wins this season at the Mizuho Americas Open and the Shanghai tournament two weeks ago.
Last week, Sei Young Kim won the BMW Ladies Championship, also in South Korea. The LPGA’s Asian swing continues in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, next week and concludes in Shiga, Japan, from Nov. 6-9.
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