This morning, the first-ever LPGA International Crown begins at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland. The LPGA and event organizers decided that the match-play format would pit four-player teams from eight nations against each other. The eight countries were determined by the combined Women's World Golf Rankings (WWGR) of the top four players from all nations with at least four ranked players following last year's Titleholders championship last November.

From there, the field of 32 golfers was determined by the WWGR following the LPGA Kia Classic on March 30. The four highest-ranked golfers from each of the pre-qualified countries were selected.

The teams were split into two pools:

Major champions are listed in bold
Players who have participated in the Solheim Cup are marked with an asterisk (*)

Pool A #1 United States Stacy Lewis* (3) Paula Creamer* (8) Lexi Thompson* (9) Cristie Kerr* (12) #4 Thailand Pornanong Phatlum (30) Ariya Jutanugarn (34) Moriya Jutanugarn (80) Onnarin Sattayabanphot (86) #5 Spain Azahara Muñoz* (19) Beatriz Recari* (23) Carlota Ciganda* (45) Belén Mozo (149) #8 Australia Karrie Webb (5) Minjee Lee (110) Katherine Hull-Kirk (98) Lindsey Wright (130)

Pool B #2 South Korea Inbee Park (1) So Yeon Ryu (6) Na Yeon Choi (11) I.K. Kim (15) #3 Japan Mika Miyazato (27) Ai Miyazato (31) Rikako Morita (36) Sakura Yokomine (37) #6 Sweden Anna Nordqvist* (10) Caroline Hedwall* (24) Pernilla Lindberg (112) Mikaela Parmlid (172) #7 Chinese Taipei Yani Tseng (46) Teresa Lu (48) Candie Kung (97) Hsuan-yu "Phoebe" Yao (160)

Over each of the first three days, each team will face the other three teams in their pool in round-robin fourball competition. On Saturday evening, the teams will be re-seeded based on the total points they earned in pool play.

On Sunday, the top two teams from each pool and one wild-card team will participate in singles matches, with each team facing a competitor from every other team. The team with the most total points from both pool play and singles matches wins the International Crown.

And, literally, each player on the winning team gets a crown, too:

BLING!

Thursday Pool Play
United States		vs.		Australia
Thailand		vs.		Spain
South Korea		vs.		Chinese Taipei
Japan		vs.		Sweden
11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT

Friday Pool Play
United States		vs.		Spain
Thailand		vs.		Australia
South Korea		vs.		Sweden
Japan		vs.		Chinese Taipei
11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT

Saturday Pool Play
United States		vs.		Thailand
Spain		vs.		Australia
South Korea		vs.		Japan
Sweden		vs.		Chinese Taipei
3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EDT

Sunday coverage on Golf Channel will also run from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EDT.  
 

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Image via LPGA International Crown