To say the LPGA Tour’s summer schedule has been busy would be an understatement.
In the span of a single month, the LPGA Tour has competed in five countries, and come Thursday, the Tour will have traveled to its sixth country since July, returning to the United States for the ninth consecutive week of competition at the Portland Classic.
It’s been a jet-setting summer for the best in women’s golf who will travel five and a half hours south from Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada to Portland, Oregon this week for what will be the penultimate event in a 10-week string of tournaments across the globe.
And the competition has been wide open, not just this summer, but all season long.
Sunday, the Tour welcomed a new member to the winner’s circle in Megan Khang, who broke through at the CPKC Women’s Open for her long-awaited first LPGA Tour victory. Khang became the ninth Rolex First-Time Winner of the year, which is on pace to match last season’s record of 11 players to earn their maiden title in a single year.
Portland could very well be the place where LPGA Tour sees yet another first-time champion. Since 2012, five of the last 10 winners have been first-timers, including defending champion Andrea Lee. She’s just the latest in a string of recent first-time winners in Oregon, joining Marina Alex (2018), Brooke Henderson (2015), Austin Ernst (2014) and Mika Miyazato (2012).
These champions joined a prestigious list of winners to have captured the Portland Classic, which is the longest-running, non-major on the LPGA Tour schedule. The tournament began in 1972 and is one of the few stops the LPGA consistently makes in the Pacific Northwest. Dating back to 1925, Columbia Edgewater Country Club has been the primary tournament venue for more than 30 years. The facility is a picturesque stop that features towering pines and nearly 50 bunkers sprinkled throughout the course, and has seen players like Nancy Lopez, Annika Sorenstam and Suzann Pettersen crowned champions.
This year’s field is one of the strongest in recent years with Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Lilia Vu headlining. She comes to Portland with three wins already this season and is poised to pick up yet another victory as she knows how to navigate Columbia Edgewater, tying for third in this event last season. The two-time major champion is joined in the field by Nelly Korda, Lydia Ko, Brooke Henderson, Atthaya Thitikul and Lexi Thompson.
Khang, the LPGA’s newest champion, will make the short trip from Vancouver to Portland where she’ll play without the weight of trying to capture that elusive first win. Now, the focus will shift to the others who have been working towards their breakthrough moment like Xiyu Lin, Hye-Jin Choi and Alison Lee, who all remain in search of their first LPGA Tour victory.
Five of the last 10 champions to hoist a trophy in Oregon were first-time winners on the LPGA Tour, so if history is any indication, those players who are poised for that much-anticipated breakthrough moment might just find it this weekend at the Portland Classic, joining a laundry list of storied champions who’ve emerged victorious in the Pacific Northwest.
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