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Jul 16, 2014

Amateurs Have Chance to Qualify for LPGA’s Portland Classic

Tournament Golf Foundation, the organizers of the Portland Classic Presented by Cambia Health Solutions, will host a one day amateur-only event that guarantees the winner a spot in the LPGA tour’s oldest non-major tournament.

Suzann Pettersen, winner of the 2013 Portland Classic.
Suzann Pettersen, winner of the 2013 Portland Classic.

The Portland Classic Amateur Open will be held at Langdon Farms Golf Club in Aurora, OR (15 minutes south of Portland) on Monday, August 18, beginning at 7:00 a.m. Any woman amateur golfer with an established USGA handicap of 2.0 or less is eligible to compete.

The winner of the event will earn a guaranteed spot in the 72-hole Portland Classic tournament proper to be held August 28-31, at Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland, Ore. The second and third place finishers will earn spots alongside professionals in the tournament’s Monday qualifier to be held on Monday, August 25. The top two finishers from the qualifier will also earn entry into the Portland Classic.

Last year, SooBin Kim of the University of Washington won the Portland Classic Amateur Open in a playoff with Taylor Babcock (Barry University). Babcock and Kristina Merkle (University of Tulsa) earned spots in the Monday qualifier for the Portland Classic. Kim competed very well in the Portland Classic against the pros, finishing tied for 30th at -8. Merkle earned a spot in the LPGA tournament by finishing in the top two of the Monday Qualifier but missed the cut in the Portland Classic by just two strokes.

Eleven former Portland Classic Amateur Open participants have gone on to become members of the LPGA (Ayaka Kaneko, Paige Mackenzie, Jennie Lee, Sydnee Michaels, Inbee Park, Jane Park, Jane Rah, Kim Welch, Tiffany Joh, Mi Jung (MJ) Hur, and Ryann O’Toole). Mi Jung Hur won the Portland Classic in 2009, just two years after participating in the Portland Classic Amateur Open. Last year alone, six former Amateur Open participants were in the Portland Classic field (Hur, Joh, Kim, Merkle, Michaels, and O’Toole).

The Portland Classic Amateur Open will have a $95 entry fee and players can get an application by calling the Tournament Golf Foundation office at 503-626-2711 or by visiting the news section of the tournament web site, www.portlandclassic.com. Entry deadline for the event will be August 15, 2014.

The Portland Classic Presented by Cambia Health Solutions will feature the world’s top women professional golfers at Columbia-Edgewater Country Club in Portland, OR, from August 28-31, 2014. The 72-hole tournament features a purse of $1.3 million and broadcast coverage on the Golf Channel for all four rounds. Suzann Pettersen (shown in photo), currently 4th in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, won the 2013 tournament with a two-stroke margin over Stacy Lewis, currently No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings.

For more information on the Portland Classic and Tournament Golf Foundation, visit www.portlandclassic.com or call 503-626-2711. For more information on Langdon Farms Golf Club or for practice rounds, visit www.langdonfarms.com or call 503-678-4653.