While there are a lot of teams in this year’s International Crown that have an abundance of talent, perhaps no team has the complete package like the Australians.
The International Crown is the biannual competition where the four highest ranked players from seven countries, plus a World Team featuring the best of the rest, compete against each other in a weekend-long series of head-to-head matches. In 2023, the Australian team of Hannah Green, Minjee Lee, Stephanie Kyriacou and Sarah Kemp finished runner up to Thailand.
In 2025, three of those players will likely return, Green, Lee and Kyriacou, and will be joined by the most recent major championship winner Grace Kim. There still seems to be an outside chance that Gabi Ruffels could sneak ahead of Kyriacou, but she would need some excellent results to get in there. It seems apparent that Australia will enter with as much experience in this event as any other team, considering only Thailand and Korea also figure to have three returning players.
Australia was a bit of a Cinderella story in that competition, as they were the No. 7 seed out of 8 (Though England had a couple players withdraw that would have had them ranked higher.) Minjee Lee, like she is now, was ranked No. 5 in the world, but she was the clear standout on the roster. Hannah Green has since risen 12 spots in the world rankings to No. 11 after her three wins in 2024. Kyriacou has much more experience, coming into that event as a relative unknown to many. She is now ranked quietly in the top 40 in the world and has been playing some fantastic golf this season.
Then we have Grace Kim, who narrowly missed out on making the 2023 team. She just won her first major championship at Evian in about as thrilling of a finish as anyone could imagine. She isn’t the most consistent player on the tour, but she has a wealth of upside as evidenced by how many times she has put herself in contention on the weekend. This Australian roster is very complete with all four of their participants in the top 40 right now.
Green hasn’t had the season many expected after her great 2024, but she is still a rock steady player without a real weakness in her game. Lee has been resurgent this year, winning a major and racking up five top-10 finishes in 13 starts. This team has both experience and elite play at the top, combined with good depth.
The final factor that makes this team a serious threat is the chemistry. Anyone who follows the LPGA Tour knows that, thanks in no small part to the leadership of the legendary Karrie Webb, nobody supports each other and is more tight knit than the Australian players. Kyriacou recently said as much:
“Out here, it’s kind of like each country sticks with on another, but I would say the Aussies probably have the closest family.”
