LPGA event to Pumpkin Ridge?

Saturday, February 23, 2008
MIKE TOKITO
The Oregonian Staff

The Safeway Classic, Portland's long-running LPGA Tour event, could move to a new course in 2009.

Tournament Golf Foundation Inc., the Portland-based nonprofit organization that runs the event, is completing an agreement to move the Safeway Classic to Pumpkin Ridge, the 36-hole facility in North Plains.

"We should have an announcement in two to three weeks," said Tom Maletis, president of TGFI.

The move is a dramatic shift for the Safeway Classic, the longest-running non-major on the LPGA Tour. It has been played on long-established private Portland courses since its inception in 1972. The tournament was held at Columbia Edgewater 25 times, including the past 17 stagings (the 2001 event was canceled because of 9/11), and also has been played at Portland Golf Club and Riverside Golf & Country Club.

Maletis emphasized that TGFI is pleased with its relationship with Columbia Edgewater, where the tournament again will be held this year, Aug. 22-24. The 2007 event, won by Lorena Ochoa, drew a record 68,900 fans, allowing TGFI to donate $1.1 million to local charities, the highest contribution by an LPGA tournament last year. But the event has grown so much, organizers realized they could do better with a bigger venue.

"We've just been leaving revenue on the table by not having more (corporate) tents up," Maletis said.

If the move is made, the tournament would be played on Ghost Creek, Pumpkin Ridge's Bob Cupp-designed public course. Witch Hollow, the facility's private course also by Cupp, would be utilized to expand the tournament's pro-amateur, a major source of revenue.

"Logistically, it works out much better, as the pro-am has grown, to have the two courses side-by-side," Maletis said.

TGFI, Pumpkin Ridge and the LPGA Tour would sign a three-year contract. The Safeway Classic has a three-year rolling agreement with Columbia Edgewater that expires this year.

Pumpkin Ridge, founded in 1992 by Gay Davis, Marvin French and Barney Hyde, last had regular events on a national tour in 1993 and 1994, when it held the Nike Tour Championship, the season-ending event of what is now the Nationwide Tour.

But the facility's reputation was made by holding United States Golf Association events, highlighted by Tiger Woods winning his historic third consecutive U.S. Amateur title in 1996. The venue also has played host to the 1997 and 2003 U.S. Women's Opens, the 2000 U.S. Junior and U.S. Girls Junior, and the 2006 U.S. Women's Amateur.

Davis said he is excited at the prospect of Ghost Creek -- ranked No. 37 on Golf magazine's list of best public courses in the country -- being showcased. The two Nike Tour Championships were played on Ghost Creek but were in October and plagued by rain and cold weather. The U.S. Senior Open had been scheduled at Ghost Creek in 2006 but was moved because of its proximity to another senior major, the Jeld-Wen Tradition, which was played that year at the Reserve in Aloha.

The other high-profile events at Pumpkin Ridge were played on Witch Hollow.

"It's great that spectators will have a chance to play the same course that the tour players will compete on," Davis said.

Pumpkin Ridge officials have long wanted to play host to a U.S. Open, but with Chambers Bay in Tacoma recently awarded the 2015 U.S. Open, that possibly, at least for the immediate future, seems unlikely. However, Scott Humphrey, general manager and director of golf at Pumpkin Ridge, said officials there would like to have other USGA events.

"We still have a pretty good relationship with the USGA, and we certainly value hosting other events," Humphrey said. "But in the end, we didn't think this event would really jeopardize that relationship."

Mike Tokito: 503-294-7603; miketokito@news.oregonian.com