Pairings for Thursday’s four-ball matchup's at the UL International Crown were announced by players representing the eight teams in the competition at a gala on Tuesday night, setting the stage to crown the world’s best golfing nation at Merit Club this weekend.
Three teams visited the media center for pre-tournament press conferences in between tee times at the Official UL International Crown Pro-Am on Wednesday. Additionally, a press conference was held to announce that Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Songdo International Business District, Incheon, Korea - site of The Presidents Cup 2015 - has been selected as the host course for the 2018 UL International Crown.
Pool play will begin tomorrow with eight four ball matches, with tee times starting at 8:00 a.m. Central Time and the last group going off at 9:45 a.m. Each team will play two matches against another team in their pool. Two points will be awarded for a win, one point will be awarded to each team for a tie and zero points will be awarded for a loss.
KARRIE WEBB BACK TO LEAD TEAM AUSTRALIA
The 2016 UL International Crown marks the LPGA’s return to Merit Club for the first time since the 2000 US Women’s Open, a tournament Team Australia member Karrie Webb won. At the time, it was Webb’s 21st career LPGA win and third major championship and she has gone on to win 20 more times on Tour and that experience is something that Team Australia looks to pull from this week
“Well, it’s great to be back here,” Webb said. “I haven’t been back to the Merit Club since 2000, so it’s been a nice trip down memory lane for me. Just remembering that week of the U.S. Open in 2000, and obviously the course is not set up U.S. Open style, which I think we’re all pleased about. This event should have a lot of low scores being shot in the best-ball format and lots of birdies, and that’s how it’s set up.”
Australia takes on Chinese Taipei with Karrie Webb and Su Oh facing off against Yani Tseng and Teresa Lu in the first match of the UL International Crown. Su Oh will use the experience of playing with Webb as a learning opportunity.
“She won the U.S. Open here in 2000, so we have a winner in the group already,” Oh said of Webb. “I’m just trying to see what she does. I’ve always wanted to play on a team with Karrie, and she’s just a really amazing role model. I think she’s amazing. I can’t wait to go out there and play really well and see how we go.”
TEAM JAPAN A MIX OF WORLD TOURS
Team Japan returns just one player, Mika Miyazato, to the UL International Crown after its tie for third with 10 points in 2014. At 26 years old, the team’s oldest player stressed the need for more teamwork and greater communication this time around. Despite Miyazato’s characterization of a match play format as “tough,” Ayaka Watanabe said she is “going to have to go at it and just play my game.”
On Thursday, Japan will play Thailand in the first four-ball matchups of pool play. The No.3 seed may have an advantage as the team describes Merit Club as having greens very similar to those in Japan. In addition, Team Japan’s determination for the Crown was demonstrated early in the week when the Japanese were the only team practicing first thing Monday morning.
Haru Nomura, who is one of six players to win multiple events on the LPGA Tour in 2016, is Team Japan’s highest ranked player at No. 22 in the Rolex Rankings. Nomura boasts a total of 80 points and ranks fifth so far in the Rolex Player of the Year Race. Miyazato joins Nomura as the only LPGA members on the squad and is currently ranked third on Tour in driving accuracy (81.03%).
Rounding out Team Japan are Japan Ladies Professional Golf Association (JLPGA) members Ai Suzuki and Ayaka Watanabe.
“There’s still a lot of people who don’t really know about this tournament in Japan,” Wantanabe explained, “So winning it would make it better and more interesting for them to watch and have interest in it, so I will try to win.”
THAILAND FEELING CONFIDENT
Three-time 2016 LPGA winner Ariya Jutanugarn hasn’t been shy in saying how she feels about Team Thailand’s chances this week in the months leading up to the 2016 UL International Crown, and Tuesday was no different. Ariya, her sister Moriya and Pornanong Phatlum are back from the 2014 team that finished fifth and they add a veteran TLPGA player in Porani Chutichai.
“I say we’re going to win because I know I have good teammates,” the younger Jutanugarn said. “I have Pornanong, my sister, and Porani, so that’s why I say that. I think tomorrow is going to be good. The only thing we have to do is we really want to have fun, and we know we’re going to have the best performance when we have fun.”
The last time the Jutanugarns played in this event they were paired together in four-ball play, but this year they’ve decided to mix things up. The sisters joked on Tuesday that they would be split up to start out against in their matchup against Japan and there would be no family bickering, “so Mom don’t get too headache,” as Moriya put it.
“We practiced together, and we think we can go along together real well,” Phatlum said of her pairing with Moriya. “We think that we’re going to be a very good team together.”
JACK NICKLAUS GOLF CLUB KOREA NAMED HOST OF 2018 INTERNATIONAL CROWN
The LPGA announced today that Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Songdo International Business District, Incheon, Korea - site of The Presidents Cup 2015 - has been selected as the host course for the 2018 UL International Crown, when the biennial team match-play competition will be played outside the United States for the first time.
The announcement was made at the Merit Club in Gurnee, Ill., on the eve of the second staging of the UL International Crown. UL CEO and President Keith Williams, LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan, Jack Nicklaus Golf Club General Manager Joon-Hee Lee, Gale International Executive Vice President Tom Murcott and major champion and two-time Team Korea team member at the Crown So Yeon Ryu were on hand to make the announcement.
“If you watched the Presidents Cup in 2015, you know this is a venue that can handle big,” Whan said. “They already know how to handle big, so a lot of times when we talk about operational challenges it’s great to work with somebody who’s already been through it from a business perspective and for what it means for this event. Literally as Keith was talking about his business and how much it’s overseas and how many of his members are all over the world and what it means to take their brand, I literally felt like just saying ditto because that’s really the LPGA story, as well.”
“The UL International Crown has already made a big impact for us in a variety of ways in terms of people talking about it as employees, people talking about it as clients, fans getting excited about the event,” Williams added. “The question was asked how big is this going to be in Korea. Well, I think it’s going to be huge, and as Mike said, because it’s right near Incheon Airport, it’s so easy for fans to fly in from Tokyo or Beijing or Shanghai or Taipei. You’re talking two or three-hour flights into one of the best airports in the world and lots of hotel space, including some beautiful hotels right in Songdo City, which is five minutes from the hotel to the golf course. I think that’ll be huge.”
QUOTABLES
“Spending the week with Webby at a U.S. Open. It was just a great experience. We got to do everything that Webby would do at a U.S. Open, and we were inside the ropes so we could see all the types of shots she would play, and just sort of like that on-course experience, so that was really cool. It just gave me the experience that I really wanted to play at the U.S. Open, as well, and the next year I got to play, so it was really cool. Yeah, just -- it was just a great experience.” - Team Australia’s Minjee Lee on going to the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open with Karrie Webb
“I was watching it in Japan two years ago, so I’m pretty sure there is a lot of people that have an interest because it’s an international match.” - Team Japan’s Ayaka Watanabe when asked of Japan’s interest in this event
“Yeah, I like the course. To me the course is pretty wide. That’s why I like it. It’s in great condition, so really challenging, like some par-3s and some long par-4s. I like it.” - Team Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn, who ranks 11th on the LPGA in driving distance, on why she likes this course
OF NOTE
- 16 of 32 players in the field will represent their country at the Olympics next month, and every team features at least one Olympian. Team United States and Team Korea are tied for the most Olympians with three on each of their UL International Crown squads.
- Three of the six players with multiple wins on the LPGA Tour are in the field this week (Ariya Jutanugarn, 3 wins; Haru Nomura, 2 wins; Sei Young Kim, 2 wins).
- Ariya Jutanugarn had just returned from surgery when she played in this event in 2014. Without any physical handicap this time around, Jutanugarn has been particularly excited – “not only from last week but especially this year and this event.”
- In 2014, only half of the matches in four-ball play reached the 18th hole (12 of 24).
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