SEOUL, Republic of Korea — Eight teams of four athletes will be duking it out at New Korea Country Club for the opportunity to win the 2025 Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown this week in the Republic of Korea. Several of the game’s strongest talents are either playing for their country’s team, like Rolex Rankings No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul is, or participating as part of the World Team, a new component for the fifth edition of the biennial team competition that features athletes like Brooke Henderson, Wei-Ling Hsu, Charley Hull and Lydia Ko.

Take a deeper look at just a couple of matches that promise to be incredibly exciting at the International Crown.

POOL B: Thursday, 9:15 a.m. – Yamashita/Takeda (Japan) vs. Hull/Lydia Ko (World)

Two rookies are taking on two veterans in the first match of the day on Thursday at the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown. Miyu Yamashita and Rio Takeda are going up against Charley Hull and Lydia Ko in the opening match at New Korea Country Club, what is primed to be a strong head-to-head battle early in the fifth playing of this biennial team competition.

Playing for the two-seeded Japan Team, Yamashita and Takeda are both 2025 LPGA Tour rookies and have each picked up victories in their inaugural campaigns at the AIG Women’s Open and the Blue Bay LPGA, respectively. This is both athletes’ first time teeing it up in this type of international team competition on the LPGA Tour, and while their inexperience with this type of event could be considered a pitfall to watch out for, that greenness just might play to their favor when looking at who their opponents are in match one of pool play.

Hull and Ko combine for 26 LPGA Tour victories, two of which have come this season at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G and the HSBC Women’s World Championship, respectively. Hull has beau coups of experience with team play, having appeared in seven Solheim Cups and tallied 16.5 points for the Europeans in her 27 total matches, which converts to a 15-9-3 career record.

Ko’s familiarity with this type of format is much more limited than her day-one partner, but the LPGA Hall of Famer knows what it’s like playing with a teammate, as she has teed it up in four Dow Championships in the past, tapping her LPGA Tour counterparts Danielle Kang (2021, 2024, 2025) and In Gee Chun (2019) as her partner in her four previous times competing at Midland Country Club.

POOL A: Thursday, 10 a.m. – Green/Grace Kim (Australia) vs. Thitikul/Anannarukarn (Thailand)

The Australian Team, who lost to the Thailand Team in the finals at the 2023 Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown, will have a chance to redeem themselves early in the 2025 edition of the event, as they are going head-to-head with the Thais on Thursday at New Korea Country Club.

Major champions Hannah Green and Grace Kim are facing off with best friends Jeeno Thitikul and Pajaree Anannarukarn in the fourth match of the day at 10 a.m. local time. Green was a member of that second-place Aussie squad at TPC Harding Park and will be playing for the second time in an International Crown as part of one of the most experienced squads in the eight-team field.

The 28-year-old is currently ranked No. 18 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and has amassed six wins since joining the LPGA back in 2018, one of which is a major title that came in 2019 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club. She has teed it up twice in the Olympics, tying for fifth in Tokyo in 2021 and tying for fourth in 2024 in Paris.

Kim became a first-time major champion when she outlasted Thitikul in a playoff at The Amundi Evian Championship in July, what was her first victory since winning the 2023 LOTTE Championship, also in extra holes over Yu Liu and Yu-Jin Sung. The 24-year-old is making her first start in the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown, marking Kim’s first time playing in this type of global team event.

The Australians will be working to take down Rolex Rankings No. 1 Thitikul and two-time LPGA Tour winner Anannarukarn, the latter of whom was tapped to compete when Patty Tavatanakit withdrew after the initial qualification period had closed. Thitikul is the only LPGA Tour athlete to have tallied multiple wins this season at the Mizuho Americas Open and Buick LPGA Shanghai, a year that has seen 27 different players emerge victorious in 27 official tournaments.

The 22-year-old is also the only member of the Thailand Team to have previously competed in a Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown, doing so in 2023 at TPC Harding Park in just her second year as an LPGA member, and Thitikul will be working hard to lead an essentially brand-new squad to a successful title defense in the Republic of Korea.

Thitikul is thick as thieves with Anannarukarn, who is making her International Crown debut this week at New Korea Country Club. The 26-year-old Anannarukarn has collected two LPGA Tour titles since joining the organization in 2019, triumphing in a playoff over Emma Talley at the 2021 ISPS Handa World Invitational to become a Rolex First-Time Winner and then winning the 2023 T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards over Ayaka Furue.

Thitikul and Anannarukarn have eight LPGA Tour victories between them, but it’s their longstanding rapport with one another that could be a major factor in determining their week-long success in Korea, as they vie to become the first team to win the Hanwha LIFEPLUS Internation Crown in back-to-back playings.

All times local. For a full list of tee times, please click here. For more information on how to watch the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown, please click here.

Featured Matches: 2025 Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown

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