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Golf Monthly
Golf Monthly
Sport
Elliott Heath

International Crown 2025: Teams, Format And What To Know Ahead Of Star-Studded Match Play Event

Team Thailand pose with the International Crown trophy .

The biennial International Crown returns later this year where eight teams made up of the best women golfers in the world compete for the title in a match play format.

The field features all of the world's top 16 players and each of this year's five Major champions.

The event began in 2014 and its fifth edition takes place this year in South Korea, which hosts for the second time, with the action taking place at New Korea Country Club from October 23-25.

World No.1 Jeeno Thitikul, No.2 Nelly Korda and AIG Women's Open champion Miyu Yamashita are among the many stars in the field, although it will be the Korean team made up of Hyo Joo Kim, Haeran Ryu, Jin Young Ko and Hye-Jin Choi that will get the majority of the support from the home crowd.

It will be the second time Korea hosts the event, with the home team winning when Jack Nicklaus Golf Club hosted in 2018.

Thailand are the defending champions after defeating Australia last time out at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, California.

HANWA LIFEPLUS INTERNATIONAL CROWN FORMAT

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The eight-team, 32-woman event will see two groups of four play round robin four ball better ball match play games over the first three days, before four teams advance to the final day's semi-finals.

The semi-finals will see two singles match-ups and one foursomes game before the two winning teams move on to the final later that afternoon. The final is the same format, with two singles games and one foursomes match.

The winning team will earn $2m.

HANWA LIFEPLUS INTERNATIONAL CROWN TEAMS

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The eight teams for 2025 have been decided via the Women's World Golf Ranking. They are: USA, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Thailand, Sweden, World and China.

They are the same as last time aside from Team England being replaced by Team World, which is made up of Americas (North America and South America); Europe; Asia; and Africa/Oceania. It means that Lydia Ko will be making her debut, with New Zealand yet to have a team in the first five editions.

USA start the tournament as top seeds ahead of Japan in second and South Korea in third.

Here's how they line up in order of seeding:

USA: Nelly Korda, Angel Yin, Lauren Coughlin, Lilia Vu

Japan: Miyu Yamashita, Rio Takeda, Mao Saigo, Ayaka Furue

Korea: Hyo Joo Kim, Haeran Ryu, Jin Young Ko, Hye-Jin Choi

Australia: Minjee Lee, Hannah Green, Grace Kim, Steph Kyriacou

Thailand: Jeeno Thitikul, Ariya Jutanugarn, Chanattee Wannasaen, Patty Tavatanakit

Sweden: Maja Stark, Madelene Sagstrom, Ingrid Lindblad, Linn Grant

World: Brooke Henderson, Charley Hull, Wei-Ling Hsu, Lydia Ko

China: Ruoning Yin, Weiwei Zhang, Yan Liu, TBC

Xiyu Lin has qualified for the Chinese team but will not be playing this year as she has a baby on the way.

Team England drops out after a controversial 2023 event where Bronte Law was unhappy about how her teammates Charley Hull and Georgia Hall withdrew from the event with just days to go .

"I think anyone with some level of decency would send their teammates a message that they weren't coming, not find out from other players on tour who have heard things from them saying things at the tournament last week," Law said.

"I don't think that that's a lot to ask for."

Charley Hull will be playing this year as part of Team World.

Hanwa Lifeplus International Crown Past Winners

Year

Winner

Runner-up

Course

2023

Thailand

Australia

TPC Harding Park, USA

2018

South Korea

USA

Jack Nicklaus Golf Club, Korea

2016

USA

South Korea

Merit Club, USA

2014

Spain

Sweden

Caves Valley, USA

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