Northwest Players take their shot at LPGA Tour’s Portland Classic
by Josh Gaunt
Several Northwest players are competing this week in the Portland Classic, which returns to Columbia Edgewater Country Club August 1-4 for its 52nd edition as the longest running event on the LPGA Tour outside of the major championships.
The event has a hall of fame list of past champions, including Kathy Whitworth, Annika Sorenstam, Juli Inkster and Nancy Lopez, and other LPGA stars including Hannah Green, Brooke Henderson and Stacy Lewis.
Caroline Inglis who is from Eugene, Oregon, is a former Oregon Duck and Columbia Edgewater CC member. She became the first golfer in Oregon program history to be named the Pac-12 Individual Champion in 2015 and won three straight OSAA state championships.
Inglis has been on the tour since 2018 and recorded her best finish (T9) in a major at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in June of this year. At the DOW Championship, she tied for 8th place.
“It’s been an interesting season, started off really poorly,” she says. “Went through a caddie and coach change. Played well at KPMG and DOW. I enter every tournament with the intention to win, and I believe I can do that; it’s just a matter of sticking to my process and doing the right things, hopefully one week I will come out on top.”
A strong finish at the KPMG Championship helped give Inglis an added sense of belief in her ability to win.
“It was huge boost of confidence, with the changes I made it was great validation,” Inglis said. “It had been a while since I was in contention so I was nervous and uncomfortable but by Sunday I was comfortable.”
Inglis played with Gigi Stoll, a fellow Oregonian now in her rookie year on the LPGA Tour, in Oregon junior golf events. Stoll won the Oregon Junior Amateur in 2011, 2013, 2014 and the Oregon Women’s Amateur in 2014, 2015, and 2017.
Stoll was named a PNGA Player of the Year multiple times – 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017.
“I played junior golf with Gigi when she was 12 years old and she was kicking everyone’s butt,” Inglis said. “She was way younger than all of us, she has been so good from a very young age. She is a friend of mine, we played a practice round a couple weeks ago. There are not that many other players on tour from Oregon so it was good to catch up, reminiscing about old times and junior golf.”
Two years ago, Inglis had a hole-in-one in the Portland Classic.
“Definitely two years ago was the highlight,” Inglis recalls. “There was a mob of members and friends and family watching me. To make a hole-in-one on a course that I played so many times was really surreal. I finished in the top 15 that week so it was a great finish. Seeing all the staff, the head pro, friends and family, it’s a really special week and I’m always happy to be back and play this event.”
Stoll played college golf at the University of Arizona where she graduated in 2019. She competed on the Epson Tour since 2019 and broke through in 2023 when she finished T45 at LPGA Q-Series to earn LPGA Tour membership for the 2024 season.
Included in her 2023 season was a win at the Casino Del Sol Golf Classic.
Stoll took seventh at the LPGA DOW Championship in late June for her best finish on tour while playing in five LPGA events prior to the Portland Classic.
“This is really what I’ve been working for, just get a couple starts and get the opportunity to be a full-time member out here is the goal at the end of this year.” Stoll said. “Yeah, finishing seventh at Dow was a huge momentum boost just being out here my first year. It kind of proved to me that I can be out here and show these girls who I am and where I stack up against them.”
Stoll won the PNGA Women’s Amateur in 2018.
“It’s exciting to have Oregonians out in the field every week on the LPGA,” Stoll said. “Oregon Golf is growing. It’s very strong. We’ve always had a really competitive junior golf program. It’s just exciting to see a couple girls out on the biggest tour there is.”
Victoria Gailey, a Tigard native and sponsor invite to the Portland Classic, turned pro in 2023 and has played on the Epson Tour, Cactus Tour, and ANNIKA WAPT, and has one professional win at the ANNIKA WAPT FCA Women’s Championship in 2024.
Gailey was named the University of Nevada Athlete of the Year in 2023 and was All-Mountain West First Team (2023) in her fifth year at the program.
“This is really where my dream of playing on the LPGA was born, so to be in the field this week is really surreal,” Gailey said. “Yeah, dream come true for sure.”
Gailey won the Women’s Oregon Amateur Championship, Women’s Oregon Public Links (three-time winner – 2020, 2021, 2022), and the Oregon Tour Championship, all OGA events in 2022. She also won the Oregon Women’s Stroke Play Championship in 2021 and Junior Stroke Play in 2018.
“That summer of 2022, was a huge turning point in my golf career,” Gailey said. “That win at the Oregon Am, it’s such a long week. If you’re from Oregon, you want to win the Oregon Am. It gave me a ton of confidence, and going into my senior year I won three times in a row.”
“It’s so special that we have an LPGA event here,” Gailey said. “Not everywhere can say that. Like I said, my dream of playing on the LPGA was pretty much born here at the Portland Classic, so to have this event here and keeping it in Portland is just really special to me.”
Yvonne Yu Qi Vinceri from Redmond, Ore. won the Les Schwab Tires Amateur Open in June to earn her way into her first LPGA event as a sponsor invite. Vinceri is going to be a senior at the University of Idaho and has one career win at the 2023 Eastern Washington’s Eagle Invitational.
Kennedy Swann qualified for the Portland Classic at the Monday qualifier on July 29, shooting a 69 at Riverside Golf and Country Club. Swann is a head teaching professional at Tokatee Golf Club in McKenzie Bridge, Ore.
She became the first female to win the Oregon Open in 2021, an event conducted by the Pacific Northwest Section PGA. This will be her second start at the Portland Classic while also playing on the Epson Tour in 2022.
Josh Gaunt is a writer and former sports reporter for The News-Review and other publications in southern Oregon, which included coverage of the University of Oregon.
