Australians reach semi-finals at International Crown
The Australian team in San Francisco – photo Getty / LPGA
Despite being beaten by the Thai team in today’s third round of round-robin matches, the Australian team of Minjee Lee, Hannah Green, Stephanie Kyriacou and Sarah Kemp has advanced to the semi-finals of the Hanwha Plus International Crown teams event at TPC Harding Park outside of San Francisco.
Today, Lee and Kyriacou lost to Patty Tavatanakit and Atthaya Thitikul by a narrow one hole margin after Kyriacou had put the pair 1 up with an eagle at the 3rd but by the 12th the Thais had seemingly taken control of the match and led 3 up.
Kyriacou would birdie the 14th and 15th to reduce the margin to just one but although Kyriacou would also birdie the 17th and 18th those efforts were matched by the Thais and they lost at the last.
Green and Kemp also took an early lead in their match against the Jutanugarn sisters, Ariya and Moriya, but the Thais took control through the middle of the round and went on to win 3&2.
That left Australia as the runners up behind Thailand in their group having beaten both Korea and Japan in earlier matches.
In tomorrow’s semi final the Australians will face Sweden (Anna Nordqvist, Caroline Hedwall, Madelene Sagstrom and Maja Stark) who topped their group, while Thailand will face the US side.
The format over the group rounds has consisted of fourball match-ups but in tomorrow’s semis and final the play switches to one foursome and two singles matches.
