Australia wallops defending champs South Korea on opening day of International Crown

The Australians were adamant they weren’t underdogs in the elite teams event in California and an opening day take-down of the defending champs was proof.

Hannah Green continued her good form. Picture: Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images via AFP

Major champs Minjee Lee and Hannah Green helped combine for an opening Australian wipe-out of defending champions South Korea at the International Crown team event in San Francisco.

Australia has a best finish of sixth in the previous three editions that pits the best players from the leading eight countries in women’s golf, including the US, England and Japan, against each other.

But Green, coming off her sudden-death win at the LPGA event in Los Angeles last week, and partner Sarah Kemp were first to taste victory 2 and 1 before Lee and Steph Kyriacou stunned the Koreans 2-up to lift Australia to the top of their group.

Kyriacou, an LPGA Tour rookie, sealed her team’s win by “smashing a three wood” to under two metres from the flag on the par five 18th hole, having been adamant leading into the event that the Australians should have been rated higher.

Upset alert!!!! Go the Team Aussie winning both matches against Team Korea!! Aussie Aussie Aussie!!! 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺@minjeegolf@hannahgreengolf@kempgolf@Stephkyriacou2

— Karrie Webb AO (@Karrie_Webb) May 5, 2023

Kemp, also playing the event for the first time, said the mood in the Australian quartet had put them in the perfect frame of mind for success.

“I’m not surprised that this happened,” she said.

“We had a great time last night. We’ve had a great week. We’re just all having a good time and it doesn’t surprise me that we did what we did today.”

Minjee Lee and Stephanie Kyriacou stunned the Koreans. Picture: Mike Mulholland/Getty Images

Green, who secured her first LPGA title since 2019 in a playoff last weekend, said the Aussies would push on from the perfect start in pursuit of the $750,000 winner’s cheque.

“I guess we can‘t really let our foot off the gas,” she said.

“Having two points for today definitely helps, but I think we’re all very comfortable on this golf course, so that obviously helps with the confidence.”

The four-player teams will play three days of round-robin matches of four-ball competition, with the top two from each group advancing to the semi-finals on Sunday and then a decider.

Originally published as Australia wallops defending champs South Korea on opening day of International Crown