Veteran Sarah Kemp will represent Australia in team competition for the first time after clinching the final spot on Team Australia for next month’s Hanwha LifePlus International Crown in San Franscisco.

Thirty days out from the tournament’s return to the LPGA Tour schedule for the first time since 2018, Aussie duo Hannah Green and Minjee Lee visited the home of the San Francisco Giants Major League Baseball team to promote the event that pits eight countries against each other.

Not only did countries have to earn qualification by virtue of the Rolex Women’s World Rankings – Team Australia has qualified seventh – but individual players for each team.

For the final spot in the Aussie squad, that race went down to the wire.

One spot behind Grace Kim in the world rankings going into last week’s DIO Implant LA Open, Kemp needed to finish ahead of the LPGA Tour rookie to secure the fourth and final spot.

In finishing in a tie for 47th, Kemp finished two strokes ahead of Kim and moved up four spots to 174th in the world rankings, just two spots ahead of Kim when the qualifying period ended on Monday.

The 37-year-old will now join Lee (No.5), Green (No.23) and Stephanie Kyriacou (No.107) at TPC Harding Park from May 4-7, Australia one of six countries to participate in all three International Crown tournaments to date.

Our best finish to date was sixth in 2018 with the team of Lee, Katherine Kirk, Sarah Jane Smith and Su Oh and captained by Karrie Webb when they were the No.5 seed.

The other countries to qualify for the 2023 International Crown are the United States (Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson, Lilia Vu, Danielle Kang), Republic of Korea (Jin Young Ko, Hyo-Joo Kim, In Gee Chun, Min Ji Park), Japan (Nasa Hataoka, Ayaka Furue, Miyu Yamashita, Yuka Saso), Sweden (Linn Grant, Maja Stark, Madelene Sagstrom, Anna Nordqvist), England (Georgia Hall, Charley Hull, Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Bronte Law), Thailand (Atthaya Thitikul, Patty Tavatanakit, Moriya Jutanugarn, Ariya Jutanugarn) and the People’s Republic of China (Xiyu Lin, Ruoning Yin, Haruka Morita, Yuting Shi).

The International Crown format creates two groups with four teams in each group.

Each team plays the others in the group over three days of fourball (better ball) matches. The top two point-earning teams from each group will advance to Sunday.

Semi-finals will consist of two singles matches and one foursomes (alternate shot) match. The two semi-final winning teams will compete in the same format in the finals, with a consolation match to determine third and fourth.