Out of the Rough: The Standard Portland Classic (2025)

Major season has come to a close on the LPGA and after a three-week stint in Europe, the Tour returns state-side for this week’s The Standard Portland Classic.

This event is the Tour’s longest-running non-major tournament and is currently the only professional men’s or women’s golf event held in the Pacific Northwest.

Founded in 1972, this staple of the LPGA schedule will be held for the 53rd time.

It once again will be held at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club and has been every year since 2013. This is also the 37th time that this venue has hosted this event overall. 

The Field

With many of the Tour’s best opting out of this event, there is still plenty of star-power to lead this week’s field at one of the tournaments that is loved by the players.

Angel Yin (7th) leads the charge as the highest ranked golfer within the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

She’ll be joined by the likes of Haeran Ryu, Hannah Green, Lauren Coughlin, Lilia Vu, Jin-Young Ko, Brooke M. Henderson, Celine Boutier, Chanettee Wannasaen, Yuka Saso and Rose Zhang to make up one heck of a field.

Moriya Jutanugarn comes in as the defending champion, using this event a season ago to claim her third LPGA title, doing so in dramatic fashion.

She trailed Andrea Lee by three-strokes going into Sunday but a final-round 66 propelled the Thai star into the winner’s circle. She’ll be back this week to defend her title.

LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member Juli Inkster will also be teeing it up this week. She won this event in 1999.

Other former winners of this event teeing it up this week include Wannasaen (2023,) Ko (2021,) Green (2019,) Stacy Lewis (2017) and Henderson (2015 & 2016.) 

The Course

The Macan Course at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club is no stranger to the LPGA.

It was founded in 1925 and was designed by Vernon Macan, hence the name. He became one of the Pacific Northwest’s most prolific golf architects. 

The venue as a whole has hosted many professional events on both the LPGA and PGA tours since its opening. The likes of Billy Casper and Jack Nicklaus won the Portland Open Invitational here in the 1960’s. 

It plays as a par-72 at 6,497 yards.

The course is routed through dense forest along the banks of the Columbia river. It’s laid out in two distinct loops. The front nine is sent in a counter-clockwise direction in the central portion of the property as the back nine is routed clockwise in the outer portion of the property.

In this routing, golfers will be hitting in every-which direction on the compass, bringing winds, which funnel down the Columbia River into play and in turn, ensuing havoc for even the world’s best. 

Off-the-tee golfers are greeted with tight, tee-lined fairways. The course itself is compact and in-turn, offers many doglegs.

Water comes into play on seven holes this week and there are 54 bunkers scattered throughout. The bunkers often guard the inside of dog-legs and the fronts of greens. The bunkers are also described as deep with sharp edges. 

Missing the fairway, if one can avoid the water, bunkers and trees, brings the thick rough into play that can be grown out to upwards of five-inches.

This goes without saying that accuracy off-the-tee is a must.

From there, golfers will take approach shots into greens that are slightly below the Tour average in terms of size.

These greens run roughly 11 on the Stimpmeter and are contoured in a way that any shot that misses the correct landing location will run off into collection areas. 

It features the standard breakdown of four par-fives, four par-threes and ten par-fours.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, Thursday calls for just a 20-percent chance of precipitation, Friday a 35-percent chance, Saturday a 45-percent chance and Sunday a 20-percent chance. Temperatures will be at the highest on Thursday at 78-degrees before dipping to 73-degrees on Friday and bouncing back to 75-degrees across the weekend. Winds will also be at the highest on Thursday at nine miles-per-hour before decreasing to eight miles-per-hour on Friday and settling to seven miles-per-hour across the weekend. In all, exactly what to expect out of Pacific Northwest weather. 

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Driving Accuracy Percentage

• Stokes Gained: Around the Green (SG: ATG)

• Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: PUTT)

• Scrambling

• Sand Saves Percentage

• Par Five Scoring Average

Betting Card

Lauren Coughlin (+1800)

You can’t say the words ‘driving accuracy’ and not expect Coughlin to pop in your model. She is currently second on Tour in driving accuracy percentage, 18th in par-five average scoring, 21st in SG: APP, 24th in scrambling, 77th in SG: ATG, 95th in sand saves percentage and 99th in SG: PUTT. She placed T9th here a season ago. She most recently placed 13th at the AIG Women’s Open and tenth at the ISPS HANDA Scottish Women’s Open.

Chanettee Wannasaen (+3000)

The 2023 winner is my next pick and it’s no wonder she popped in my model as a former champion. She is currently 11th on Tour in SG: ATG, 15th in scrambling, 18th in sand saves percentage, 42nd in SG: APP, 47th in par-five average scoring, 58th in SG: PUTT and 74th in driving accuracy percentage. On top of winning here in 2023, she was T39th a season ago. She missed the cut in her last outing at the AIG Women’s Open but prior to that placed 43rd at The Amundi Evian Championship, 14th at the Dow Championship, second at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and tenth at the Meijer LPGA Classic

Kristen Gillman (+10000)

This is a big number for someone who matches up well to this golf course statistically. She is currently tenth on Tour in scrambling, 14th in SG: ATG, 30th in driving accuracy percentage, 35th in par-five average scoring, 69th in SG: APP, 74th in SG: PUTT and 103rd in sand saves percentage. The form as of late is not ideal (two missed cuts and a 55th at the AIG Women’s Open across her last three outings) but when she’s on, she’s on. She placed tenth at the Dow Championship, missed the cut at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, placed 14th at the Meijer LPGA Classic, missed the cut at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, placed ninth at the MEXICO Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba, eighth at the Mizuho Americans Open and 36th at the Black Desert Championship.