The teams have been selected for the 2018 UL International Crown, with Korea and USA ranked in the top spots. The biennial team matchplay event will be held in the first week of October, when four players from eight countries will compete at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon City.
The highest-ranked team is the host, Team Korea. It’s pretty easy to see why. The four players have combined for 12 Major wins. Sung Hyun Park has won two Majors, Inbee Park has seven, I.K. Kim has one, and So Yeon Ryu has won two Majors.
Team USA, the defending champions, is made up of Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda, Cristie Kerr and Michelle Wie. The other six teams competing are Japan, England, Australia, Thailand, Sweden and Chinese Taipei.
The event is expected to be big. Early ticket sale offerings have sold out, and having the host team also seeded as No.1 adds to the hype. Kerr said she thinks it has the ability to be bigger than the Solheim Cup.
“I think it’ll be massive in Korea,” said Thompson. “We’ll get a tonne of people out there watching us… They get so many fans out there. Golf is huge in Korea and that’s what we want to see. There’s so many great players and the best of the top-eight countries. It’ll be tough but we’re going to bring our ‘A’ game.”
This is the third International Crown to be played, the first was won by Spain in 2014 and the USA won in 2016.
Here is the breakdown of each team:
Korea: Sung Hyun Park, So Yeon Ryu, Inbee Park, I.K. Kim
USA: Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda, Cristie Kerr, Michelle Wie
Japan: Nasa Hataoka, Ai Suzuki, Misuzu Narita, Mamiko Higa
England: Charley Hull, Georgia Hall, Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Bronte Law
Australia: Minjee Lee [pictured], Katherine Kirk, Sarah Jane Smith, Su Oh
Thailand: Ariya Jutanugarn, Moriya Jutanugarn, Pornanong Phatlum, Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong
Sweden: Anna Nordqvist, Pernilla Lindberg, Madelene Sagstrom, Caroline Hedwall
Chinese Taipei: Teresa Lu, Wei-Ling Hsu, Hsuan-Yu Yao, Candie Kung
