The LPGA was here first.

This month the golfing world descends on Portland with the LPGA’s Cambia Portland Classic and U.S. Women’s Amateur both underway this week and the Web.com Tour making a stop in Oregon in two weeks.

The Pacific Northwest has long been a stop on the LPGA’s schedule. The Cambia Portland Classic is the longest running non-major event on Tour, hosting the world’s best players since 1972.

“23 Hall of Famers have won our event,” said Tournament Golf Foundation President Tom Maletis. “There are some special ones I think. Juli (Inkster) winning here to go into the Hall of Fame, you know Annika’s 62 course record and we’ve had some great finishes, wish over the years I’d written all these things down, but there’s been some very impactful memories that I’ve had of the event and the players that have been here.”

Having rotated between Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, Portland Golf Club and Riverside Golf and Country Club, the tournament returned to Columbia Edgewater Country Club in 2013. The club hosts this year’s event for the 29^th time in the history of the tournament. The venue has a history of its own, built in 1925 in a traditional Pacific Northwest style with towering pines and more than 50 bunkers that challenge players to keep the ball in the fairway.

“It is a very good, traditional Northwest course,” said Maletis. “When people see the Northwest course whether it be Chambers Bay or Bandon Dunes, those are great courses but they’re not the real, true style of a Northwest style course like Columbia Edgewater is. You have the bunkers and the trees and the greens, you don’t have to do anything just actually tee it up on those markers. It really fits the players' games quite well and they’ve got to hit an awful lot of shots and you’ve got to drive the ball straight.”

Fans will enjoy seeing a stronger field this year that includes seven former champions thanks to a change of schedule that moved the event from Labor Day weekend to early August. The move Maletis says is a welcome one that has positioned the tournament at a critical point in the schedule for players.

“This is an ideal date for us and the second tournament before the end of the Solheim Cup standings which is important,” Maletis said. “It’s shaping up to a be a great week and really happy with how everything has fallen into place so far.”

This year marks a milestone for Maletis who has been invested in the success of this event for 25 years. With a change in sponsorship the event has returned to four days of play and produced generous donations to charity each and every year.

“We’ve given over 20 million dollars to charity over that period of time and I think over 30 million dollars in purses to the great LPGA players that come out and support us, so in it’s own way its very satisfying to be a part of that.”

Cambia Portland Classic, Longest Running Non-Major On LPGA Tour Continues to Thrive

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