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Australia was good, but not good enough on day one of the UL International Crown in Chicago, going down 2-0 to Taiwan on the opening day.
The Aussie women lost both fourball matches to their Asian neighbours who, quite simply, had the answers every time they were challenged.
The team of Karrie Webb and Su Oh were four under par when they shook hands on a 3&2 loss to Yani Tseng and Teresa Lu, who were outstanding in being seven under at the time.
And just as impressive in the second match were Candie Kung and Ssu-Chia Cheng, who were the same score through 18 in beating Minjee Lee and Rebecca Artis 2-up.
Lee, in particular, was impressive in playing her own round five under, but the team just couldn’t align as well as their Taiwanese counterparts who were dynamic throughout.
“We were just trying to play our own golf out there,” Kung said. “They were making birdies, making eagles, and we were making birdies out there, too. (Ssu-Chia) played awesome today. We just kept it in there.”
The result left Australia in a precarious position and forced a switch-up in teams for tomorrow’s match against China, with Webb and Artis combining as well as old amateur mates Lee and Oh.
“I think we are going to come back stronger,” Oh said.
“Obviously we didn't get any points today, so something different tomorrow. We're going to come back stronger.”
Oh talked of her inexperience in the format and with the pressure of representing Australia at professional level for the first time.
“It was kind of like you hit a bad shot but then it's not really like your bad shot (it’s) like the whole country’s. You're representing the entire country. That was a little bit more pressure, I think, a bit more nerves. But always a first time for everything, so that was a very good experience.
“It was a rough day out there (for me), but it's all a good experience. When Karrie was doing match play, even if I was further out and she had a putt to put the pressure on the other two, then she knew what to do from there.
“That was something she knew that I didn’t.”
In Pool B matches, England is the surprise leader after blanking the United States 2-0, while Thailand took the honours over Japan, winning 1.5-0.5.