2015 Portland LPGA event looks forward to new August dates

After two years of overlapping with the start of college football and playing into Labor Day weekend, the Portland Classic will move to an earlier August date in 2015. The LPGA Tour event will be played Aug. 13-16 at Columbia Edgewater.

“After two years in the Labor Day weekend, we are very excited to move two weeks earlier,” said Tom Maletis, president of Tournament Golf Foundation, the Portland non-profit that runs the event. “The earlier part of August proved very popular in prior years with our fans, sponsors and the top LPGA professionals.”

The Portland Classic has undergone several recent changes, starting with the loss of title sponsor Safeway in 2013. Also, after a successful four-year run at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, the tournament returned to long-time home Columbia Edgewater in 2013 and changed to a 72-hole format after being a 54-hole tournament throughout its history.

The tournament lost Safeway after the 2013 tournament, but TGF brought the event back in 2014 without a title sponsor, with Cambia Health Solutions signing on as presenting sponsor.

In 2013 and ‘14, the tournament was played the final week of August, which meant Saturdays were played on the same day that both Oregon and Oregon State started their college football seasons with home games, cutting into attendance. The final round was played the Sunday before Labor Day; meaning families that left town for the long weekend would not attend.

The late date also hurt the tournament’s 2014 field as such stars at Stacy Lewis, Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer, Lydia Ko and Inbee Park skipped the Portland stop, which in years past had drawn most of the tour’s top golfers. The tournament was played as the fourth in four weeks on tour, with the preceding three played on the East Coast, and the next event on the calendar being a major, the Evian Championship in France.

With the weaker field, the 2014 event drew 62,000, down from the 71,500 in 2013.