S. Korea wins LPGA's International Crown for 1st time

Host South Korea captured the LPGA's UL International Crown for the first time on Sunday, thanks to a strong finish down the stretch that ensured a comfortable victory.

Much to the delight of tens of thousands of partisan fans at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, South Korea clinched the title with two out of four singles matches still remaining. The country ended up winning two out of those four matches while losing one and tying the other.

South Korea boasted world No. 1 Park Sung-hyun, joined by Ryu So-yeon (No. 3), Kim In-kyung (No. 10) and Chun In-gee (No. 27). And Kim, the senior member of the team at 30 years old, secured the victory after the 17th hole in her singles match against Bronte Law of England.

After three rounds of four-ball matches and Sunday's singles, South Korea collected 15 points, four better than both the defending champion United States and England.

Each match victory was worth two points and a tie was good for one point.

The winning players each received US$100,000 in prize money.

South Korea finished in third place at the inaugural event in 2014 and in second place two years ago.

Eight countries in the field were each represented by four players, selected based on their world ranking positions.

Those teams were divided into two groups of four, and the top two teams, plus the wild card winner, after three rounds of four-ball match play qualified for the singles.

South Korea led all countries in four-ball with 10 points from five wins and a loss and took a two-point lead over the U.S. into the singles.

In a battle of the world's top two players, Park lost Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand by 2&1.

Park and Jutanugarn were deadlocked through seven holes. They each had a string of six straight pars, before scoring matching birdies at the par-five seventh.

Park finally went 1-up with a birdie at the eight, but Jutanugarn squared the match with a birdie at the 13th.

The Thai star took a 1-up lead at the par-five 15th with a birdie then moved to 2-up at the 16th, where Park failed to match Jutanugarn's par. Jutanugarn closed out Park at the 17th where both had pars.

But Chun beat Anna Nordqvist of Sweden 1-up to give South Korea precious two points. Chun won all four of her matches at the competition.

Chun built a 4-up lead over Nordqvist through 10 holes, seemingly en route to a breezy win. But the Swede won the 11th hole with a par, and had a birdie at the 13th to win that hole, as Chun's lead dwindled to 2-up with five to play.

Nordqvist put more pressure on Chun by draining a birdie putt at the 15th, and the South Korean's lead was now just 1-up.

Chun made a clutch par putt at the 16th to stay 1-up with two to play. Both had pars at the 17th, meaning even if she lost the 18th hole, she would still secure a halve with Nordqvist and get one point for South Korea.

Both players had pars again at the 18th. Hitting first, Chun missed her birdie attempt from about 10 feet, and Nordqvist couldn't drain hers from eight feet as Chun held on for a 1-up win.

Then Kim clinched the championship for South Korea by taking a 1-up lead over Bronte Law of England to the 18th hole. The worst she could do was get a tie with Law for one point, which still would have put South Korea in first place with 13 points, one more than England.

Kim ended up winning the match 2-up thanks to a par at the 18th, as South Korea climbed to 14 points with one match still ongoing and moved out of reach of England, which finished with 11 points.

Kim and Law were all square at the turn. Law had birdies at the third and the fifth to take a 2-up lead, but Kim picked up consecutive birdies at the eighth and ninth to pull even.

Law regained her lead with a birdie at the 11th, as the ball snuck in through the side door.

Kim evened the match with a birdie at the 12th and then took a 1-up lead thanks to a birdie at the very next hole.

A birdie at the 14th gave Kim a 2-up lead with four to play, but Law wouldn't go away, as she won the 15th hole with a birdie.

But Kim held off Law down the stretch and lifted pressure off the shoulders of Ryu, who was taking on Lexi Thompson of the U.S. in the day's final singles match.

Ryu set the tone early with a birdie at the first hole, but the American responded with her own birdie at the fourth.

Thompson took a 1-up lead with a birdie at the seventh and another birdie at the 10th gave her a 2-up advantage.

Ryu cut the deficit to 1-up at the 11th, where Thompson committed her first bogey of the round.

Thompson bounced back with a birdie at the very next hole and reclaimed a 2-up lead.

Ryu's birdie at the 14th cut Thompson's lead to 1-up. Ryu stood over a relatively short birdie putt at the 15th that would have evened the score but missed it to the left.

Ryu finally pulled to a tie at the 16th, where she had a par and Thompson had a bogey.

By then, South Korea had already secured the title, and the two only had personal bragging rights left to play for.

Ryu finished in a tie and got one point to round out the scoring for South Korea.

The Ryu-Thompson showdown had an interesting subplot.

Ryu beat Thompson in a playoff to win the ANA Inspiration, one of five LPGA majors, in April 2017. Thompson would have won the title in regulation, if not for a controversial four-stroke penalty on her third round score that she incurred after a TV viewer informed the LPGA that Thompson had improperly replaced her ball. Thompson was notified of the infraction during the final round. (Yonhap)