INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA | The best matches of the week at the UL International Crown will take almost that long to finish. From the beginning, the most anticipated matchup in the first three sessions was between the No. 1 seed home team, South Korea, and the grittiest team in the field, England. Because they were both in the same pool, England and South Korea were guaranteed to meet in the round-robin format.
Those two four-ball matches should have come on Saturday morning after England – Bronte Law, Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Charley Hull and Georgia Hall – won three of its first four matches against Australia and Taiwan and halved the fourth. Given that a win in the tournament’s scoring system is worth two points and a halve is worth one, the English squad led the field after the first two sessions with seven points. South Korea was tied for second with the U.S. with six points (although the U.S. was in the other pool). That set up the showdown: a fiery, working-class group of English girls who grew up playing together and have been friends since they were old enough to swing clubs against the best team in the history of this event, fielding four major champions, among them the No. 1-ranked player in the world, Sung Hyun Park.
But then Typhoon Kong-rey slid up the Korean coast at Category 1 strength. LPGA officials decided to break up session three in case Saturday were to be a washout. Friday morning times were moved up and after everyone finished and was given 45 minutes to find lunch and a warm pair of socks, it was back to golf. And at 3:25 and 3:40 on Friday afternoon, with cold rain peppering the already drenched layout at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, Park and I.K. Kim went out against Hull and Hall, while So Yeon Ryu and In Gee Chun went out last against Law and Ewart Shadoff.
