I wasn’t planning on posting Lexus Cup updates – maybe a final recap, at most – but when I saw the first day’s results, I was so astonished that I felt compelled to write something.
Team Asia won all six foursome matches to take a 6-0 lead. Most of the matches were fairly close, but the marquee pair of Annika Sorenstam/Catriona Matthew lost 3&2 to Candie Kung/Ayako Uehara. I’m sure Uehara has been a fine player on the JLPGA but THAT is an upset of the highest magnitude. Annika and Catriona never led and were down three after 11 holes. They clawed back to within one but lost 15 and 16 to end the match.
The most one-sided match was also a bit surprising – Amy Hung and Ji-Yai Shin bested Maria Hjorth and Brittany Lincicome 4&2. Shin is probably the best player on the KLPGA, but her opponents are both Top 20 players. The match was all-square after eight holes but the Asians took four of the next eight to win.
The other results were Jee Young Lee/Seon Hwa Lee 3&2 over Natalie Gulbis/Suzann Pettersen, Sarah Lee/Meena Lee 1 up over Cristie Kerr/Nicole Castrale, Jeong Jang/Shi Hyun Ahn 2&1 over Angela Park/Nikki Campbell, and Se Ri Pak/In-Kyung Kim 2&1 over Morgan Pressel/Stacy Prammanasudh. Who am I kidding? The only one of those wins that was completely expected was JJ and Ahn – the two Lees versus Gulbis/Pettersen was a pick ‘em that the Lees won rather easily. And what about Pressel/Stacy P losing to Inky and an injured Pak? Team International embarrassed themselves.
Congrats to Team Asia on their tremendous performance. This competition isn’t over yet, but Team International must win at least four points on Saturday to have any chance.
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I think that with Ahn playing as badly as she did in Fukuoka the previous week, the fighting Super Soph Lees were Team Asia's strongest pairing, hand-down.
Never would have expected a team with three charity invites (M Lee, Kung, and especially #108 on the RR Uehara), with an injured captain, and with several stars coming off a bad week (esp. Shin, but S Lee didn't shine either) to sweep Team International, but Se Ri put together some great pairings and they took over on the back.
Wow!
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