PNGA Player of the Year Ellie Slama just misses chance to play in LPGA Tour’s Portland Classic

Ellie Slama of Salem, Ore. shot 3-under par 69 in the Monday qualifier for the LPGA Tour’s Cambia Portland Classic. She was one of four golfers to tie at 3-under, so all four players went to a playoff to determine the two players who will advance to the tournament proper.

Alexis Keating and Samantha Troyanovich both birdied the first playoff hole to secure the two spots.

The qualifier was held August 28 at Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland, the same venue where the tournament proper will be held Aug 31-Sept 3.

Fourteen players, including twelve professionals and two amateurs, were competing for two spots in the Portland Classic.

Slama was twice named the PNGA Junior Girls’ Player of the Year (2015, 2016). In a couple weeks she will begin her freshman year playing for the women’s golf team at Oregon State University. She was competing in the qualifier as an amateur.

Keating, of Elma, Wash., played her college golf at the University of Colorado and currently competes on the LPGA’s developmental tour, Symetra Tour. Troyanovich is from Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.

Keating, Troyoanovich and Slama were joined by Louise Stahle in the playoff.

In addition to Slama, the Monday qualifying round included several other competitors with local ties, including George Fox University senior Kristin Elich, recent George Fox graduate Sydney Maluenda, Bend native and former Portland State University golfer Tiffany Schoning, and Amy Simanton, originally from Lake Oswego.

The Cambia Portland Classic features the world’s top women professional golfers at Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland, Oregon, from August 31 – September 3.  The 72-hole tournament features a purse of $1.3 million and broadcast coverage on the Golf Channel for all four rounds. Now in its 46th year, the event has raised over $18 million for a variety of local charitable organizations since its inception.

Tournament Golf Foundation (TGF) is a local Portland area non-profit comprised largely of volunteers who donate their time and provide the primary operations for the Portland Classic.  Established in 1972, the group currently includes more than 50 local individuals and business leaders.