Golf/Women's World Cup:The strength in depth of Korean women's golf was there for all to see yesterday as Ji-Yai Shin and Eun-Hee Ji opened the World Cup with an 11-under-par fourball score of 61 at Sun City in South Africa.
It gave the pair a one-stroke lead over France's Gwladys Nocera and Virginie Lagoutte-Clement going into today's foursomes.
England and Wales are already six shots behind in joint 10th place, while Scots Catriona Matthew and Mhairi McKay are one further back and joint 13th of the 20 teams.
The event does not have any of the world's leading six players taking part and Shin and Ji, two of an incredible 15 Koreans in the top 50, took full advantage of the opportunity to shine.
They turned in six-under-par 30 and then added further birdies on the 10th, 11th, 15th, 17th and 18th.
Shin, the world number seven who stands only 5ft 2in, is not 20 until the end of April, but last year won a record nine times from 18 starts on her country's domestic tour.
She dedicates all her victories to the memory of her mother, killed in a car crash which also put her younger brother and sister in hospital for nearly a year.
American playing partners Juli Inkster and Pat Hurst, runners-up to Paraguay last year, matched six of the Koreans' first eight birdies, but could collect only one more over the closing stretch after heavy rain held up play for over two hours.
That enabled Canadians Alena Sharp and Lorie Kane to move into third spot with a 64, one better than the United States, Philippines and Sweden.
