The pride of winning the last match against Korea and Japan was kept. At the Hanwha Life Plus International Crown, a competition between eight national teams on the LPGA Tour, Korea defeated Japan on the last day of the group stage after suffering an early elimination.
The final match of the group stage was held at Harding Park TPC (par 72) in San Francisco, California on the 7th (Korean time). Choi Hye-jin (24) and Jeon In-ji (29) beat Nasa Hataoka and Ayaka Furue (Japan) by a three-hole lead with one hole left. Ko Jin-young (28) and Kim Hyo-joo (28), who followed up, also defeated Yuka Saso and Hinako Shibuno (above Japan) by 3 holes with 2 holes left.
With this, Korea ranked third (2 wins, 4 losses) in Group B, following Thailand (6 wins) and Australia (3 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss).
This tournament is a match play in which players mainly playing on the US tour competed as a team among eight countries, including the US, Korea, Japan, Sweden, England, Thailand, Australia, and China, which achieved the best results on the LPGA tour. It is a kind of event match between countries.
Representing Korea, Ko Jin-young (3rd in the world rankings), Kim Hyo-joo (9th), Jeon In-ji (12th), and Choi Hye-jin (25th) competed.
South Korea, the defending champion who won in 2018, tried for a second consecutive victory in this tournament held in five years, but suffered a humiliation of early elimination from the group stage as it lost all four matches to Australia and Thailand in the first and second rounds of the group stage.
On the last day of the group stage, the players who promised to win against Korea and Japan played a game that overwhelmed Japan and kept their last pride.
A final game played in a four-ball game where two players play with their own balls and the better score counts as a team score. Jeon In-ji, the leader of the Korean team, took the lead by booking a birdie with a wedge shot on the 3rd hole (par 5). In a situation where the lead was close by one hole, Jeon In-ji caught a birdie on the 14th hole (par 4) and foresaw victory. Jeon In-ji and Choi Hye-jin jointly made a birdie on the 17th hole (par 3) and confirmed the victory by 3 holes.
In the following group, Ko Jin-young and Kim Hyo-joo, Ko Jin-young opened the door by catching a birdie 5m away in the 2nd hole (par 3). In the 8th hole (par 4), Ko Jin-young put the second shot to the conceded birdie spot and caught a birdie. She also played a hybrid tee shot on the 9th hole (par 3), and easily added a birdie by following the luck of the ball hitting the flagpole and falling 1m away.
Kim Hyo-joo also made a second shot with a wood from the 10th hole (par) rough following a birdie on the 9th hole, and added a birdie to the pin 1.5m away. Ko Jin-young and Kim Hyo-ju, who were ahead by four holes until the 10th hole, gave Japan a hole in the 11th hole (par 4), but maintained a three-hole lead until the 16th hole and won.바카라사이트
On this day, Korean players caught 19 birdies and defeated Japan, which only had 11 birdies. Among them, Ko Jin-young played an active role, catching 7 birdies without bogey. Jeon also recorded 6 birdies.
Meanwhile, in Group B, where Korea belongs, 1st place Thailand and 2nd place Australia advanced to the semifinals. In Group A, 1st place Sweden (5 wins, 1 draw) and 2nd place USA (3 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses) rose. In the semi-finals held on the 8th, Sweden, ranked first in Group A, and Australia, ranked second in Group B, will face each other. Again, Thailand and the United States compete for the final.