Su Oh and Katherine Kirk couldn’t have found a better time to break their UL International Crown drought.
Needing to do no worse than to halve their matches against the white-hot favourite Koreans on their home soil, Oh and Kirk stunned major champions I.K. Kim and Sung-hyun Park 3&2 to keep the Aussie team’s title hopes alive.
And while Minjee Lee and Sarah Jane Smith came up narrowly short in their clash against another pair of Korean major champions – So Yeon Ryu and In Gee Chun – that pair also impressed in a tight 2&1 loss to give their team hope on a second day altered as Typhoon Kong-Rey bears down.
Organisers pushed part of the day three schedule forward into day two with heavy rain forecast on Saturday. However, the storm has continued to cause havoc for Incheon, with the course recording gusts of up to 30 mph.
When play was called for the day, both teams were up in the matches against Chinese Taipei.
Earlier, against the top-ranked Koreans, a spectacular short-range birdie on the par-five 3rd by Queenslander Kirk pressed home a fast start the Aussies, neither of whom had won a point in previous Crown series.
They maintained that 2-up advantage for the next eight holes before Victorian Oh turned up the heat after a brilliant hybrid into the 12th gave the Aussies a commanding 3-up lead.
A clutch birdie from world No.10 Kim changed the dynamic of the match with the home side pushing back to 2-down with four to play.
But with the Aussie pair “extremely hungry for the win”, Kirk retaliated with a birdie on the 15th and Oh sealed the deal with a par on the 16th for an impressive victory.
“We just `ham and egged’ it really well today and made some clutch putts when we needed to,” Kirk said afterwards.
Whilst disappointed with the loss, opponent Kim was humble in praise for the Australian duo: “We really gave our best, just Katherine and Su really had a (good) game.”
Occasionally heavy rain hampered conditions, with Lee and Smith struggling to find birdies early in their match.
Back-to-back birdies for Lee on the 14th and 15th threatened the Korean fans’ party mood as the Aussies pulled to just 1-down with three to play.
But it wasn’t to be as the defiant Ryu returned a birdie on the 17th to finalise the match, much to the home crowd’s delight and relief.
After the second round matches, Australia was third on three points in Pool A, trailing Korea (6) and England (7), the latter having beaten Chinese Taipei (0) in both their matches.
In Pool B, the United States trounced Thailand to go clear on top with six points, with Sweden (4), Japan (3) and Thailand (3) all still in the mix.
Late Saturday afternoon the LPGA announced that day three had been suspended due to strong winds from Tropical Storm Kong-Rey. Third round play will resume on Sunday at 7:05 local time (8:05am AEST).