AP, Owings Mills :
A winless day left the top-seeded United States with the feeling there’s nothing left to lose in their quest to capture the International Crown
Yani Tseng made a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to give Taiwan a sweep of the Americans in the opening round of the 32-player, eight-team tournament Thursday.
Tseng and Phoebe Yao never trailed in a 1-up win over Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson after Candie Kung and Teresa Lu beat Paula Creamer andCristie Kerr 4 and 3.
“There’s probably more pressure with being No. 1, but we all knew coming into match play that anything can happen,” Lewis said. “It always comes down to one putt here and there.”
Tseng made the winning putt after Lewis failed from a bit farther out on her own birdie try.
“I haven’t had this feeling for a long time,” Tseng said. “I made that birdie putt, my hands were shaking.”
Thompson and Lewis had little doubt about whether the ball was going to drop.
“We both kind of had that feeling she was going to make that putt on 18, just the way she had putted all day and the just the way things had gone,” Lewis said.
Each team receives two points for a win and one for a tie. The U.S. was the only team that failed to secure a point on the first day.
“You just have to keep positive and try to find the good in the day,” Kerr said. “We’re going to be coming out guns a blazing. We have nothing to lose from here on in.”
On Friday, the United States will face Spain (3 points) in Pool A, and Taiwan (4) will take on Thailand (1). Pool B matchups are Japan (3) againstAustralia (2) and South Korea (2) versus Sweden (1).
“There’s a lot of golf left this week, and some teams that maybe won three points today might get shut out tomorrow,” Kerr said.
Taiwan, which entered as the No. 8 seed, now appears to be the team to beat.
“We were having fun. That’s the key point for our team,” Kung said. “We don’t have a whole lot of high expectations. Of course we want to win, we want to take the cup home, but we’re trying to keep everybody low key, keep it calm.”
Japan took the lead in Pool B with a strong performance against Sweden. Although the Japanese team of Ai Miyazato and Sakura Yokomineled from start to finish, it took a birdie on No. 18 by Yokomine to secure a 2-up win over Pernilla Lindberg and Mikaela Parmlid.
“That was a great start, for sure,” Miyazato said. “But still a long way to go. I’m exhausted already, because I used so much energy on the golf course.”
A winless day left the top-seeded United States with the feeling there’s nothing left to lose in their quest to capture the International Crown
Yani Tseng made a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to give Taiwan a sweep of the Americans in the opening round of the 32-player, eight-team tournament Thursday.
Tseng and Phoebe Yao never trailed in a 1-up win over Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson after Candie Kung and Teresa Lu beat Paula Creamer andCristie Kerr 4 and 3.
“There’s probably more pressure with being No. 1, but we all knew coming into match play that anything can happen,” Lewis said. “It always comes down to one putt here and there.”
Tseng made the winning putt after Lewis failed from a bit farther out on her own birdie try.
“I haven’t had this feeling for a long time,” Tseng said. “I made that birdie putt, my hands were shaking.”
Thompson and Lewis had little doubt about whether the ball was going to drop.
“We both kind of had that feeling she was going to make that putt on 18, just the way she had putted all day and the just the way things had gone,” Lewis said.
Each team receives two points for a win and one for a tie. The U.S. was the only team that failed to secure a point on the first day.
“You just have to keep positive and try to find the good in the day,” Kerr said. “We’re going to be coming out guns a blazing. We have nothing to lose from here on in.”
On Friday, the United States will face Spain (3 points) in Pool A, and Taiwan (4) will take on Thailand (1). Pool B matchups are Japan (3) againstAustralia (2) and South Korea (2) versus Sweden (1).
“There’s a lot of golf left this week, and some teams that maybe won three points today might get shut out tomorrow,” Kerr said.
Taiwan, which entered as the No. 8 seed, now appears to be the team to beat.
“We were having fun. That’s the key point for our team,” Kung said. “We don’t have a whole lot of high expectations. Of course we want to win, we want to take the cup home, but we’re trying to keep everybody low key, keep it calm.”
Japan took the lead in Pool B with a strong performance against Sweden. Although the Japanese team of Ai Miyazato and Sakura Yokomineled from start to finish, it took a birdie on No. 18 by Yokomine to secure a 2-up win over Pernilla Lindberg and Mikaela Parmlid.
“That was a great start, for sure,” Miyazato said. “But still a long way to go. I’m exhausted already, because I used so much energy on the golf course.”
