Photo: Ladies European Tour

Team ALPG were left devastated after a remarkable comeback in today’s singles matches saw them come agonisingly close to reaching tomorrow’s Championship Final at The Queens Cup presented by Kowa.

The ALPG team, lead by captain Karrie Webb had started the day with just one point from yesterday’s fourball matches, needing to finish ahead of both the teams from the LPGA of Japan and the Ladies European Tour to make the Final against the Korean LPGA Tour, who had virtually sealed their place by virtue of having won all 4 of their matches on the opening day.

Hannah Green, coming off a magnificent rookie year in 2017 lead the ALPG team out this morning in the opening match, but found her Korean opponent Jeong-Eun Lee too strong going down by a 6/5 margin.
Victorian Stacey Peters, playing in the second match against England’s Annabel Dymock was off to a fast start and held on to win 2&1 to set the tone for her teammates behind her.
Katherine Kirk came into the tournament this week being the only Australian player to win on the LPGA Tour in 2017, and again showed her quality defeating Japan’s Mamiko Higa 2&1 in an impressive display.

In the 4th match out for Team ALPG, Kiwi Cathryn Bristow struggled against her Korean opponent Char-Young Kim losing 6&5, while ALPG Team captain in 2015 and 2016 Rachel Hetherington also struggled losing to Ji-Hyun Kim losing by the same margin.

ALPG captain Karrie Webb showed her quality playing in the 5th match, coming back from 4 down with 6 holes to play to halve her match with England’s Florentyna Parker and give the ALPG Team an outside chance of qualifying for the final.

Sarah Jane Smith is also coming off a solid 2017 on the LPGA Tour and was at one stage looking like she would also add another 2 points to the ALPG total, however her opponent Ritsuko Ryu, ranked 66 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings fought back impressively to win the match 2&1.

In the 7th match out for ALPG, Whitney Hillier came back from a 3 down with 4 holes to play to be all square coming down the last, knowing that nothing short of a win would be good enough to see Team ALPG make it through to the Championship Final. The West Australian, gave herself every chance hitting her second shot to within 8 metres of the hole, but left the putt short to halve the match, meaning that the team from the LPGA of Japan would contest the final against the defending champions from the LPGA of Korea, while the ALPG team will contest the third-place final on Sunday against the team from the Ladies European Tour.

Sarah Kemp, playing in the final match continued her recent good form defeating Iceland’s Olafia Kristinsdottir 2&1.

ALPG Captain Karrie Webb was clearly disappointed after watching her team come so close to making the final;

“I am really proud of the girls today, we all fought so hard and were so close to making it through to the final tomorrow.”
“It is a little disappointing to have come so close and we had a good run at it, will be out to beat the LET team tomorrow.”

Team ALPG will start the Third Place Final with a slight advantage, due to them having accumulated more points than LET over the first two days from the four foursomes matches they only need 4 points to seal third place.

Third Place final draw (foursome matchplay);
8:00am Stacey Peters & Katherine Kirk vs Gwladys Nocera & Carly Booth
8:10am Hannah Green & Whitney Hillier vs Annabel Dimmock & Olafia Kristansdottir
8:20am Rachel Hetherington & Karrie Webb vs Florentyna Parker and Lee-Anne Pace
8:30am Sarah Jane Smith & Sarah Kemp vs Felicity Johnson and Holly Clyburn

Watch the final round live on Fox Sports Australia;
SUNDAY – from 13:00 to 16:00 on FS506

Round 2 Results

The Queens Cup presented by Kowa;  Played in Nagoya, Japan from 1st-3rd December. Day one on 1st December will be Fourball Matchplay, Day 2 on 2nd December will be Singles Matchplay, while the Final Day will be Foursomes Matchplay.
Follow all the scores on our website www.alpg.com.au

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