Henderson, Hsu lead World team into International Crown semifinals

GOYANG, South Korea (AP) — Canada's Brooke Henderson and Wei-Ling Hsu of Taiwan beat Sweden's Madelene Sagstrom and Ingrid Lindblad 4 and 3 on Saturday to qualify the World team for the International Crown semifinals.

The win gave the World team its fourth point in Pool B from three wins and two ties in the LPGA team event at the New Korea Country Club.

In a later match, Maja Stark and Linn Grant of Sweden beat the World team's Charley Hull and Lydia Ko 3 and 1.

Australia also qualified for the semifinals from Pool A, as did Japan from Pool B.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for the World team to come true, and I am just so grateful to be a part of this team,” Henderson said. “It’s been an incredible opportunity so far. I love my partner here. (Wei-Ling) bailed me out a lot here today, and she played amazing all week. It’s been so much fun, and I’m really excited for tomorrow.”

Going into Saturday's final round of fourball matches, the United States had already qualified for the semifinals from Pool A with wins in its first four fourball matches.

Under the tournament format, seven countries and a “rest of the world” team compete in two pools. The teams and their players were determined by the women’s world ranking.

The top two countries from each pool advance to Sunday's semifinals and final that consists of one foursomes (alternate shot) and two singles matches.

Last week Sei Young Kim won the BMW Ladies Championship, also in South Korea. The LPGA's Asian swing continues in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next week and concludes in Shiga, Japan from Nov. 6-9.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf