Everything you need to know about the UL International Crown
There is no Solheim Cup this year, but 32 of the world’s best players head to Incheon, South Korea in October for the UL International Crown – but what is it,how does the event work, and who is playing?
What is the UL International Crown?
The UL International Crown is a women’s team golf tournament played every two years.
While the Solheim Cup pits the United States of America against Europe, the UL International Crown sees eight national teams from around the world go head-to-head.
Four players represent each nation, and the teams faceoff in four days of matchplay.
This year, the event will be played for the first time in South Korea at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club from October 4-7. This was also the venue for last year’s Presidents Cup in the men’s game.
Format
The teams are seeded and put into two groups. For the first three days, the teams play each other in a round-robin at fourball, where two points are awarded for a win and one point for a half.
Once the matches are completed, the top two teams from each group advance to the final day along with a wildcard team, which is determined by a sudden-death playoff between the third placed teams.
With five nations remaining, the teams are re-seeded based on points won in the round-robin.
Each team then plays four singles matches against all of the other remaining teams left.
The points are added onto the total from the round-robin and whichever team has the most points is determined the champion.
In the event of a tie, each team will nominate one player to represent the team in a sudden-death playoff.
With a prize fund of $1.6 million (£1.2m), the winning team receives $400,000 (£308,000) which is split among the four players.
Qualification
The eight countries are determined by the combined world ranking of the top four players from each country on a specified date before the event.
At a later date, typically a month later, the four individual players for each team are determined by world ranking.
Teams
For the 2018 tournament, the following teams and players qualified in the order which they have been seeded:
South Korea: Sung Hyun Park, So Yeon Ryu, In-Kyung Kim, In-Gee Chun
United States: Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda, Cristie Kerr, Michelle Wie
England: Charley Hull, Georgia Hall, Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Bronte Law
Japan: Nasa Hataoka, Ai Suzuki, Misuzu Narita, Mamiko Higa
Australia: Minjee Lee, Katherine Kirk, Sarah Jane Smith, Su Oh
Thailand: Ariya Jutanugarn, Moriya Jutanugarn, Pornanong Phatlum, Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong
Chinese Taipei: Teresa Lu, Wei-Ling Hsu, Phoebe Yao, Candie Kung
Sweden: Anna Nordqvist, Pernilla Lindberg, Madelene Sagstrom, Caroline Hedwall
History
The tournament debuted in 2014 where Spain defeated Sweden at Caves Valley Golf Club in Maryland.
Two years later, the United States won by one point to South Korea at Merit Club, Illinois (pictured above).
More from LG
