Taiwanese golfer Hsu Wei-ling has earned a place in this year’s International Crown, a biennial team competition organized by the LPGA, following a recent rise in her world ranking.
Hsu climbed to world No. 83 after finishing tied for sixth at the Women’s Open, overtaking Singapore’s Shannon Tan to earn a place on the World Team for her maiden appearance in the biennial country-based team competition. It would be her first appearance in the event.
In a format change announced by the LPGA in January, the International Crown now features seven national teams and one World Team, created to include top-ranked players from countries without enough elite golfers to field a full team.
Photo: AFP
The World Team comprises top players from four global regions — Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa and Oceania — excluding athletes from the seven already-qualified nations.
The final lineup of individual players was based on the world rankings updated after the Open, which concluded on Sunday.
Hsu would join New Zealand’s Lydia Ko (No. 3), England’s Charley Hull (No. 10) and Canada’s Brooke Henderson (No. 54) on the World Team. Ko, a 23-time LPGA winner, is also making her International Crown debut and is seen as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the new format.
Hsu, 30, told the Central News Agency that she was honored to join the competition as an Asian representative on the World Team.
“All the other teams are national teams, so it still feels a bit different,” she said.
The World Team would compete against the US, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Sweden, Australia and China — whose spots were determined by combined world rankings following the Women’s PGA Championship.
This year’s edition — the fifth in the tournament’s history — is scheduled for Oct. 23 to 26 in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
Taiwan previously fielded a team in the first three editions of the event from 2014 to 2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2020 tournament to be canceled.
The competition resumed in 2023.
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