The tournament features eight national teams, each with four players, including England, United States and Japan; England have lost key players Georgia Hall and Charley Hull; watch the Hanwha Lifeplus International Crown live on Sky Sports from Thursday to Sunday
Thursday 4 May 2023 14:24, UK
The Hanwha Lifeplus International Crown brings together the best women golfers from across the world to compete in a team match play competition.
National team tournaments are always a highlight of the golfing calendar, with the Ryder Cup and the Solheim Cup pitting the Americans against the Europeans, but the LPGA's International Crown, which will be played at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, draws from a much wider field.
England will feature alongside the United States, South Korea, Japan, Sweden, Thailand, Australia and China. Asian countries make up half the competition's entrants, with women's golf well-established on the continent.
There are eight teams, each with four players, competing over the four days from Thursday to Sunday.
The teams have been drawn into two seeded groups for the first three days: Group A contains No 1 United States, No 4 Sweden, No 5 England and No 8 China, and Group B No 2 South Korea, No 3 Japan, No 6 Thailand and No 7 Australia.
Each country will play two fourball matches against each of the other three countries in their pool over the first three days.
Pairs will receive one point for a win, half for a draw and zero for a loss. The top two scoring countries from each group will progress to Sunday.
Both semi-finals will be played on Sunday morning, consisting of two singles matches and one foursomes match, with the winners of Group A facing the runners-up in Group B and vice versa. The winners of the semi-finals will compete in the final on Sunday afternoon, with two singles and a foursomes being played once again, while there will also be a third-place play-off.
The tournament will be the first elite women's competition to be held at the prestigious TPC Harding Park.
The countries competing were determined by the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings, with the final field of 32 players confirmed on April 2.
If a top-four ranked player for a country chose not to compete, their place was filled by the country's next highest ranked player.
England's leading duo Georgia Hall and Charley Hull have been forced to pull out of the tournament this week due to injury and illness respectively. Hall is ranked 10th and Hull 18th. They have been replaced by Alice Hewson and Liz Young who both fall short of the top 150.
After this setback for England, they are likely to be regarded as outsiders but it will at least take some of the pressure off the team, which is completed by Jodi Ewart Shadoff, now their highest-ranked player at world No 49, and Bronte Law.
United States are the top seeds and clear favourites playing on home soil, with a team led by world No 1 Nelly Korda and fourth-ranked Lilia Vu, who claimed her first major title in April's Chevron Championship.
However, the Americans will face fierce competition from holders South Korea, a team where all four players sit within the top 25 with a combined 73 professional wins. Strength across the team is crucial, but South Korea also have world No 3 Jin Young Ko who is likely to be a formidable opponent if she features in a Sunday singles match.
Australia are now exciting contenders too after Hannah Green's triumph at last week's JM Eagle LA Championship. The country are ranked only seventh out of eight, but thanks to Green's win now have two players in the top 20.
A share of $1.6m (£1.28m) is on offer, with the winning team taking home $400,000 (£320,000).
After cancellation in 2020, this is the first International Crown since 2018, when South Korea hosted and were crowned champions.
The International Crown will be live on Sky Sports Golf and Sky Sports Main Event* from 11pm to 2am from Thursday to Sunday. (*Main Event coverage commences at 11.30pm on Sunday).
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