Posted December. 04, 2008 08:00,
Korean female golfers will face off against Japan at the Pinx Cup Korea-Japan Womens National Golf Team Match Play Competition over the weekend on Jeju Island.
Against Japan, Korea has recorded four victories, one tie and three losses. After losing the first and second competitions, Korea beat Japan 30-18 in the third thanks to Pak Se-ri, Kim Mi-hyun, Jang Jeong and Han Hee-won. In overtime, however, Japan prevailed.
A tight competition is expected this year given the rising intensity of the rivalry.
Led by Han, Korea will have 13 players in the competition: Lee Ji-hee, Jang, Jeon Mi-jeong, Shin Hyun-ju, Shin Ji-yai, Lee Sun-hwa, Ji Eun-hee, Choi Na-yeon, Park In-bee, Seo Hee-kyung, Kim Ha-neul and Ryu So-yeon. The average age of the team is 23.5.
The average age of the Japanese team is 2.6 years higher than Koreas since veterans such as Akiko Fukushima, 35, will play. Japan will field four golfers in their 30s: Fukushima; Yuri Fudoh, who has won the most prize money over six years; Koga Miho, Japans money leader this year; and Sakura Yokomine, who is especially strong versus Korean players.
At the competition, 24 games will be played by 12 players from each team under the format of 18-hole single-stroke play for two days. Two points go to a winner and one to each player in the event of a tie. The winning team gets three million yen (32,171 U.S. dollars) per person, or a combined 39 million yen or 418,231 dollars, and the runners-up will get 1.5 million yen (1,020 dollar) each.