U.S. wins 4th straight fourball at LPGA’s International Crown

GOYANG, South Korea — The United States stayed perfect at the LPGA’s International Crown tournament on Friday, winning its third and fourth fourball matches and ending No. 1-ranked Jeeno Thitikul’s unbeaten record in the team competition.

Americans Yealimi Noh and Angel Yin beat Thitikul and Pajaree Anannarukarn 5 and 4, handing Thitikul her first loss after six consecutive match wins in the event. Lilia Vu and Lauren Coughlin later won the second fourball match for the Americans, beating Chanettee Wannasaen and Jasmine Suwannapura 3 and 2 at the New Korea Country Club.

On Thursday, the top-seeded Americans beat China twice. The U.S. — the only unbeaten team in the tournament — leads Pool A with four points and has clinched a place in Sunday’s semifinals.

All eight teams will play a third set of fourball matches on Saturday.

Australia and China split their Pool A fourball matches Friday. Minjee Lee and Stephanie Kyriacou beat Zhang Weiwei and Liu Yan 2 and 1 and China’s Yin Ruoning and Ruixin Liu defeated Australians Hannah Green and Grace Kim 1-up.

In Pool B, Japan and Sweden also split Friday’s matches. Miyu Yamashita and Rio Takeda beat Madelene Sagstrom and Ingrid Lindblad 3 and 2 but Maja Stark and Linn Grant gave Sweden a win, defeating Mao Saigo and Ayaka Furue 3 and 2.

The World team picked up 1 1-2 points against South Korea and leads Pool B with three points from two wins and two ties.

England’s Charley Hull sunk a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to give her and World teammate New Zealander Lydia Ko a 1-up win over Hyo Joo Kim and Hye-Jin Choi. Jin Young Ko and Haeran Ryu tied their match with Wei-Ling Hsu of Taiwan and Canada’s Brooke Henderson.

“I managed to whack it, but I don’t want to whack it too hard because I don’t want to have a fiddler coming back,” Hull said. “So just thought hole it and save the stress.”

Under the tournament format, seven countries and a “rest of the world” team compete in two pools. The teams and their players were determined by the women’s world ranking.

The top two countries from each pool advance to Sunday’s semifinals and final that consists of one foursomes (alternate shot) and two singles matches.

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.