Ko Jin-young plays a shot on the sixth hole during a practice round prior to the AIG Women's Open at Muirfield on August 02, 2022 in Gullane, Scotland. (Getty Images)
South Korea will not get to defend its title at the International Crown, the biennial LPGA match play competition.
For the second straight day, South Korea lost both of its matches in the team competition at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco on Friday.
In four-ball play in Pool B, Ko Jin-young and Kim Hyo-joo lost 3 & 2 to Patty Tavatanakit and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
Choi Hye-jin and Chun In-gee fell 2 & 1 against the sisters Ariya Jutanugarn and Moriya Jutanugarn.
With a 0-4-0 record and one day of four-ball action left, South Korea won't be able to finish in the top two and move on to the semifinals scheduled for Sunday morning.
The International Crown features eight countries, each represented by four players. South Korea grabbed the No. 2 seed based on the combined world ranking positions of its four players and is in Pool B with Japan, Thailand and Australia.
The top-seeded United States is in Pool A with Sweden, England and China.
Each match win is worth a point, and a tie is worth a half point. South Korea and England are the only two nations without a point after two days.
After three days of round-robin action in the four-ball format, in which each player in a team plays her own ball and the better score of the two becomes that team's score on the given hole, the top two countries from each pool will qualify for the semifinals for Sunday morning.
From Pool B, Thailand (4-0-0) and Australia (3-0-1) have secured the two tickets to the semifinals, with Japan (0-3-1) sitting in third place and unable to make up ground with only two more four-ball matches remaining.
Thailand and Australia will square off Saturday for the top seed at stake, while South Korea and Japan will try to salvage a win that same day.
The two semifinal matches will each be made up of two singles matches and one foursome match, in which each team plays one ball and players take turns hitting shots.
Both the third-place match and the final will be played Sunday afternoon, following the same format as the semifinals. (Yonhap)
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