The 2016 International Crown was a women's golf team event organized by the LPGA, played July 21–24 at the Merit Club in Libertyville, Illinois, north of Chicago.[1] This was the second International Crown, a biennial match play event contested between teams of four players representing eight countries.
The first three days, Thursday through Saturday, featured round-robin pool play matches at fourball. Each match was worth two points for a win and one point for a halve.[2] Following the completion of pool play, the top two teams in each pool and one wild card team advanced to singles play. The five remaining teams were re-seeded based on points earned in pool play, and each team played one singles match against each of the other teams on Sunday. The total points earned in pool and singles play determined the team champion.[3]
On April 3, 2016, eight teams qualified to participate in this event, based on the combined world rankings of the top four players from each country: South Korea, United States, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, England, China and Australia.[5][6] Defending champion Spain did not qualify. The team members were finalized on June 13, 2016, and divided into two pools.[5][7] The top two teams from 2014, Spain and Sweden, failed to make the 2016 field. China and England made the field for the first time.
Play was suspended due to lightning with only the South Korea/Australia matches yet to be completed. England and the United States advanced to singles play from pool B.[10] Play resumed Sunday morning with South Korea winning both its matches with Australia to advance, along with Chinese Taipei, to singles play.
Pool A
South Korea vs. Australia
Match 23: Yang/Chun (KOR) defeated Lee/Oh (AUS), 1 up
Match 24: Ryu/Kim (KOR) defeated Webb/Artis (AUS), 3 & 2
Chinese Taipei vs. China
Match 19: Kung/Lu (TPE) and Sh. Feng/Si. Feng (CHN), halved
Match 20: Yan/Lin (CHN) defeated Tseng/Cheng (TPE), 5 & 4
China, Japan, and Thailand advanced to the wildcard playoff by finishing third in their pools. Japan advanced when Ayaka Watanabe eagled the first playoff hole.[11]