Hanwha LifePlus International Crown, New World Team to Be Established

Expanding Opportunities for Players Who Did Not Qualify
Lydia Ko of New Zealand May Compete
To Be Held This October at New Korea Country Club

The International Crown, a women's golf team competition, will introduce a World Team starting this year.

These are the players likely to represent the World Team at this year's Hanwha LifePlus International Crown. From left to right: Lydia Ko, C?line Boutier, Brooke Henderson, and Jin Beiwin. Photo by LPGA

The organizing committee of the 2025 Hanwha LifePlus International Crown announced on the 16th, "From this year's tournament, we will form a World Team to expand participation opportunities for players who did not qualify through their national team selection process."

The tournament was established in 2014. It is hosted by the U.S. Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour and sponsored by LifePlus, a brand of Hanwha Financial Group. This year's event will be held in October at the New Korea Country Club in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, with a total prize money of $2 million. Previously, eight countries participated, but starting this year, the format has changed to include seven countries plus the World Team.

Each country fields a team of four players, while the World Team consists of one top player each from four regions: the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa & Oceania. The organizing committee expects players such as Lydia Ko (New Zealand), C?line Boutier (France), Brooke Henderson (Canada), and Yanbei Jin (Taiwan) to possibly join the World Team. This year, Korea, the United States, Japan, Thailand, Australia, Sweden, and China are likely to participate. England, Germany, and France are also in pursuit.

The top seven countries participating in the tournament are determined by the combined rankings of the top four players from each country in the women's golf world rankings. This will be decided after the major KPMG Women's PGA Championship in June. The participating players will be finalized based on the world rankings following the season's final major, the AIG Women's Open, in early August. Currently, based on world rankings, the top four Korean players are Yoo Hae-ran, Yang Hee-young, Ko Jin-young, and Shin Ji-ae, followed by Kim Hyo-joo and Yoon In-na. Korea won the third edition of the tournament held in Incheon in 2018.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.