Koreans favourites at Queen Sirikit

The Queen Sirikit Cup is played this week at the Delhi Golf Club in New Delhi with 14 countries assembling teams of three to compete in the three day event beginning on Wednesday March 9th. The event is being staged for the 33rd occasion.

Teams from Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand will join hosts India.

The format consists of 54 holes of stroke-play with the leading two scores each day counting towards a team’s accumulative score.

Reflecting the strength of Korean Women’s golf, their team of Hyo Joo Kim, Ji Hee Jang, Su Yeong Yang are seeking their country’s fifth consecutive title and seventh in the last nine stagings of the event.

Only Chinese Taipei has interrupted the Korean’s domination of the event in recent years when they won in 2005 and 2006.

Australia is represented by Queenslander, Ashley Ona, West Australian, Jessica Speechley, and Victoria’s Breanna Elliott and the team is in good form as it seeks its first win in the event since 2001 in Hong Kong. In that same year Rebecca Stevenson also won the Individual title. Australian has won the team event on eight occasions overall.

Queenslander, Ona, won the ActewAGL Royal Canberra Ladies Classic in January defeating a field that included Laura Davies, Katherine Hull, Kristie Smith and Nikki Campbell while Yarrawonga’s Elliott recently won the Lake Macquarie Amateur.

The New Zealand team of Cecilia Cho, Lydia Ko and Emily Perry may well be a team to watch. Both Ko (13) and Cho (16) have performed with distinction against some of the world’s best in professional events in Australia and are considered to be future leading professionals themselves.

Ko was beaten in a playoff for the NSW Open and finished 4th at the recent New Zealand Women’s Open in Christchurch while Cho finished 5th behind Yani Tseng at the ANZ Ladies Masters on the Gold Coast.

For Indonesia captain S Retno Purwandari and team manager Cindy Carina are supporting the national team consisting of Cicilia Chudivan, Gianti Mahardika (Jagorawi G&CC) and Juriah (Matoa National GC).