About the 2016 LPGA International Crown
HE BASICS: Four golfers from eight countries compete for the Crown in a series of 3 days of team match-play events and a final day of match-play singles. The eight countries in the 2016 Crown were selected back in early April based on the total points of the country’s top players as identified in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. The Rolex World Rankings are based on players’ performances on eight different global golf Tours. See http://www.rolexrankings.com/en/faq/ for a good Q&A.
the International Crown Tournament is a great preview for the Rio Olympic Women’s Golf competition (August 15-21) where the "best golfer in the world" is crowned. Players also play for their country. However, the format for the Crown is match-play (win/lose/tie each hole) and the format for the Olympics is stroke play (total strokes over 18 holes). Watch them both to understand the different dynamics and strategy between match and stroke play. see my article about the difference between match and stroke play on www.womensgolf.com
The Crown teams for each country were finalized at the conclusion of the KPMG PGA Women’s Championship June 6-12 in Seattle.
P.S. The Rolex Rankings are not just about the LPGA Tour. The Rankings include performance results from the following 8 tours: LPGA, JLPGA (Japan), KLPGA (Korea), LET (Europe), ALPG (Australia), Symetra Tour, (LPGA developmental tour), LETAS (LET developmental tour), CLPGA (China).
UNDERSTANDING SCORING OF LPGA International Crown Tournament
July 21 through Sunday July 24th. It's a little confusing, but stick with it.
For starters; See http://www.lpga.com/leaderboard -- that leaderboard will be updated everyday until the finals on Sunday.
The format: Two players from one country vs two players from another in Fourball (think: betterball) competition. (see my article Fourball or Foursomes What's the Difference? on www.womensgolf.com.
What is confusing is that the 8 countries have been divided into "Pool A" and "Pool B". When you look at the scoring on www.lpga.com you might ask "why are there "Pools?" And that's a good question.
WHY THE POOLS? Pools level the playing field. Even though the 8 countries were selected because their top 4 players (based on the Rolex Rankings) are the 8 highest countries whose top four players have the highest Rolex Rankings --- when compared to all the other countries -- some countries are "stronger" than others based on their teams' cumulative total rankings. So, they evened out the playing field by putting the top 1, 3, 5, 7 in Pool A and the top 2, 4, 6, 8 in Pool B.
Now that you understand the Pools, the rest is easy. The Golf Channel has done a good job of explaining the format. Click the link to the golfchannel in the picture below. (That's Yani Tseng from Chinese Taipei hoping Taipei brings home the Crown.)
And a favorite LPGA reporter Amy Rogers also does a great job of explaining the winners and losers each day
http://www.lpga.com/news/2016-friday-matches-ul-international-crown Amy Rogers
