The United States defeated China twice and World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand shined on the opening day of the Hanwha LifePlus International Crown tournament Thursday in Goyang-si, South Korea.
Yealimi Noh and Angel Yin cruised to a 5-and-4 win against China’s Yan Liu and Ruoning Yin, and Lilia Vu and Lauren Coughlin earned a 1-up win against China’s Weiwei Zhang and Ruixin Liu during the fourball session at the biennial event at the New Korea Country Club.
The U.S. sits atop Pool A with two points, followed by Australia and Thailand with one each and China with zero.
In Pool B, South Korea and the World team are tied with 1 1/2 points, while Japan and Sweden each have 1/2 point.
Noh and Lin built were 4-up through nine holes. Yin chipped in for the decisive birdie at the par-13th hole.
“We ham and egged really well today,” Yin said. “And also, because we were watching (Lilia and Lauren) coming in, it was so awesome to see everybody play such good golf.”
It came down to the final hole for the other American duo, with Vu giving the U.S. the lead with a birdie on No. 16 before the teams tied the final two holes.
“I think we were also doing ham and egg, alternating bad shots. It worked out. We were able to convert some birdie putts that we had, and we just stuck to it and trusted each other,” Vu said. “I noticed Angel on our 15th hole, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, they’re done already. This is great.'”
This is the first time in the tournament’s history that the American team opened the event 2-0.
Thitikul remained unbeaten in her International Crown career after leading Thailand to the 2023 title with a perfect 5-0-0 record.
On Thursday, she partnered with Pajaree Anannarukarn for a 1-up win against Australia’s Hannah Green and Grace Kim. Anannarukarn birdied the par-5 17th hole to maintain the advantage and all four players parred the 18th.
“They’re tough to beat,”Thitikul said. “… I’m not saying we’re going to give up because they have a really strong team. We do, too. It’s really unpredictable because of the match play. But we did a really good job today.”
Japan’s Miyu Yamashita and Rio Takeda tied the World team’s Charley Hull and Lydia Ko, while Japan’s Ayaka Furue and Mao Saigo earned a 2-and-1 win over the World’s Brooke Henderson and Wei-Ling Hsu. Australia’s Minjee Lee and Steph Kyriacou defeated Thailand’s Chanettee Wannasaen and Jasmine Suwannapura 2-up.
South Korea’s Jin Young Ko and Hairan Ryu tied Sweden’s Ingrid Lindblad and Madelene Sagstrom, while teammates Hyo Joo Kim and Hye-Jin Choi were 3-and-2 winners over Sweden’s Maja Stark and Linn Grant.
