Portland Classic 2024 Tips: Jamie’s six to back each-way this week

The women will get their chance to Go for Gold next week in Paris but before then, many of the top players will be heading over to play in the States at the Portland Classic on the LPGA Tour.

As always, our golf tipster Jamie Worsley has put together his in-depth preview for the event and he's picked out six names to consider backing for the tournament. Check out who and why along with all of his Portland Classic 2024 Tips with us right here at Betfred Insights...

Last week on the LPGA, we saw Lauren Coughlin reap the rewards of her excellent form this year, as she claimed a first tour victory in the CPKC Women's Open.  

She came from one back entering the final round, shooting -1 to run out a two-shot winner over Japan's Mao Saigo. It was a win that came just a few weeks after she faltered late on in the Evian Championship when in contention, and that experience will have no doubt helped her in closing out the tournament at Earl Grey Golf Club last week. 

Coughlin is back in action this week, as the tour heads to Oregon for the Portland Classic at Columbia Edgewater Country Club.  

*You can get all the latest Portland Classic 2024 Odds and bet on the event with us at betfred.com

TOURNAMENT HISTORY 

The Portland Classic is one of the longest-running events on the LPGA, having debuted in 1972. It was played as an unofficial team event from 1977-1982, though reverted back to a regular stroke play event in 1983. 

Nancy Lopez has won this tournament a record three times – not including the team event winners - winning for the first time in 1985 and following up with further victories in 1987 and 1992. 

Lopez is then followed by a quintet of players on two victories: Kathy Whitworth (1972, 1973), JoAnne Carner (1974, 1983), Annika Sorenstam (2002, 2003), Suzann Pettersen (2011, 2013) and Brooke Henderson (2015, 2016). 

Last five winners: 

• 2023 – Winner: Chanettee Wannasaen (-26); runner-up: Xiyu Lin (-22) 

• 2022 – Winner: Andrea Lee (-19); runner-up: Daniela Darquea (-18) 

• 2021 – Winner: Jin Young Ko (-11); runners-up: Jeongeun Lee5, Su Oh (-7) * 

• 2020 – Winner: Georgia Hall (-12, playoff); runner-up: Ashleigh Buhai (-12) 

• 2019 – Winner: Hannah Green (-21); runner-up: Yealimi Noh (-20) 

*  2021 edition held at Oregon Golf Club 

Thai youngster, Chanettee Wannasaen earned her LPGA breakthrough in Portland last year and did so with a record-breaking 26-under-par winning score. She returns to defend this week and does so as a now two-time tour winner, after her victory in the Dana Open two weeks ago. 

THE COURSE 

The Portland Classic has had many homes, though no other course has hosted the event more than Columbia Edgewater Country Club. It has staged it in all but 15 of the 51 renewals since 1972, and 10 of the last 11, with the 2021 edition shifted to Oregon Golf Club due to safety concerns. 

A.V Macan originally designed the course in 1925, before making improvements in the 1950s. It has since been worked on separately by Bob Cupp in 1993 and Arthur Hills in the early 2000s, though many of those changes were reversed and reverted to Macan's original design. 

Both nines are switched for this event and the par 4 7th (usually the 16th) is converted to a par 5 for the tournament. This turns the course into a par 72 and it will this week play to a short 6480 yards; it contains 10x par 4s (337-410 yards), 4x par 5s (463-546 yards) and 4x par 3s (145-175 yards). 

The course used to provide a reasonably difficult challenge but that has softened in recent years, represented by an average winning score of -18.6 over the last 10 renewals here. During which time that winning score has exceeded -20 on five occasions. 

Built on relatively flat, gently rolling terrain, Columbia Edgewater CC is an attractive and superbly-conditioned course. With tall and densely-populated evergreen trees that frame most holes creating a feeling of calm throughout the property. 

Whilst those trees can make the holes appear tight, the landing areas in the fairways are largely generous. With sparse fairway bunkering and poa/ryegrass/fescue rough that is decreasing in difficulty – now down to 2.5/3 inches as opposed to 5 in the past – the punishment for missing fairways isn't overly severe. 

That being said, players will still need to be smart off-the-tee. Most of the fairways dogleg from left-to-right and with trees at their angles potentially blocking out approaches into the greens, some level of strategy is required. 

The pristine greens are a poa annua/bentgrass mix and small-average in size, at an average of 5,500 sq. ft. Gently sloping from back-to-front and subtly undulating, they will be setup to play at a speedy 12.5/13 on the stimp, and are the most demanding, yet interesting aspect of play at the course.  

In contrast to the fairways, the greens are well bunkered, with some large and reasonably deep. However, most of the putting surfaces are open-fronted, which allows those out of position to run their ball up onto the surface. 

Water is in-play on seven holes, including the final two. The 401-yard par 4 17th doglegs softly from left-to-right, with a lake right of the fairway and two bunkers short of the angled green. Players will then move on to the 393-yard par 4 18th, which moves slightly moves from left-to-right. A strategically placed bunker to the right defends the perfect spot from which to approach the green, which is protected short-left by water and a large bunker to the right. 

Despite these water hazards, there are just too many scoring opportunities to be had around Columbia Edgewater. The two par 5s on the front nine are very short at under 490 yards; seven of the 10 par 4s come in at under 400 yards and whilst two are protected by water, the par 3s aren't too intimidating. Providing there isn't some adverse weather on the way, I expect the players to once again score well. 

THE WEATHER 

Temperatures have been high in the area in the build up to the event and are set to continue into this week, reaching highs of 37c/98f. 

With little in the way of wind, handling the heat will be the most important factor for the players in relation to the conditions in Portland. 

KEY STATS 

• SG: Approach 

• Greens-in-Regulation 

These fast, sloping games will require players to be ultra-precise in approach and it's no surprise to see the last two winners engineer their victories with high-class iron play. 

Chanettee Wannasaen led the field in approach on the way to her emphatic win last year, whilst Ruoning Yin in 3rd ranked 7th in approach and 17th in greens-in-regulation. 

Andrea Lee also ranked 1st in approach, as well as in GIR, when winning in 2022. Runner-up, Daniela Darquea was 4th in GIR and of the other strong iron performances in the top-7, Hannah Green in 3rd ranked 2nd in approach and GIR. 

Green is of course a past champion here and we can find other strong approach performers taking the title in recent years, in the shape of Georgia Hall, Brooke Henderson and Stacy Lewis. 

• SG: Putting (poa/bentgrass) 

This typically low scoring affair usually sees strong putters come to the fore on these sloping surfaces. 

Whilst Chanettee Wannasaen relied on her tee-to-green game last year, runner-up, Xiyu Lin was helped most by the putter, ranking 7th. In addition, the three players in T3, Carlota Ciganda, Gina Kim and Ruoning Yin, ranked 4th, 6th and 19th on the greens respectively. 

Andrea Lee putted solidly when 24th with the flat stick in 2022. Though runner-up, Daniela Darquea struggled with the club, each of those in T3 putted well, with Narin An ranking 1st and Ayaka Furue, Esther Henseleit and Lilia Vu all ranking top-5. 

• Scrambling 

Some of these greens are fairly small and with the likely firmness of the course this week, players may have a harder time holding them than usual. Which will mean some strong scrambling skills will need to be displayed. 

Both of those last two winners have scrambled well, especially Andrea Lee, who ranked 7th. Further to that, 3rd-place finishers in 2023, Ruoning Yin and Gina Kim, ranked top-6 in scrambling; Narin An also finished 3rd in 2022 and led the field in scrambling. 

• Par 4 Scoring 

Scoring chances are on offer throughout this course but it's on the par 4s that the top players have excelled most in the last two years. 

Channettee Wannasaen ranked 2nd in par 4 scoring last year, with runner-up, Xiyu Lin also ranking 2nd. 

Andrea Lee led the field on the par 4s in 2022; closely followed by Daniela Darquea, who ranked 2nd.  

CORRELATING EVENTS (COURSES) 

Dana Open (Highland Meadows Golf Club) 

The Dana Open is another low scoring affair that takes place on a gently rolling tree-lined course, with similar rough and small poa/bent mixed greens.  

Notable correlating form: 

Chanettee Wannasaen: 

Portland (1st) / Dana (1st) 

Austin Ernst: 

Portland (1st) / Dana (4th, 5th) 

Marina Alex: 

Portland (1st) / Dana (5th) 

Andrea Lee: 

Portland (1st) / Dana (5th) 

IK Kim: 

Portland (2nd) / Dana (1st) 

Ha Na Jang: 

Portland (2nd) / Dana (2nd) 

Xiyu Lin: 

Portland (2nd) / Dana (4th, 5th) 

Daniela Darquea: 

Portland (2nd) / Dana (5th) 

Chella Choi: 

Portland (3rd, 5th) / Dana (1st) 

Caroline Masson: 

Portland (5th, 5th) / Dana (3rd, 5th, 5th) 

Gerina Mendoza: 

Portland (5th, 6th) / Dana (3rd) 

Meijer LPGA Classic (Blythefield Country Club) 

Blythefield Country Club is a relatively flat, largely tree-lined course, with some generous fairways and small, fast poa/bent mixed greens. With winning scores consistently exceeding 20-under-par it has many similarities to this week's challenge. 

Notable correlating form: 

Brooke Henderson: 

Portland (1st, 1st) / Meijer (1st, 1st) 

Georgia Hall: 

Portland (1st) / Meijer (6th) 

Xiyu Lin: 

Portland (2nd) / Meijer (3rd) 

Lizette Salas: 

Portland (3rd) / Meijer (2nd) 

Moriya Jutanugarn: 

Portland (3rd, 3rd) / Meijer (4th) 

Narin An: 

Portland (3rd) / Meijer (5th) 

Caroline Masson: 

Portland (5th, 5th) / Meijer (2nd) 

Gerina Mendoza: 

Portland (5th, 6th) / Meijer (2nd) 

JM Eagle LA Championship (Wilshire Country Club) 

With its wide fairways and small, well bunkered and fast poa annua greens, the tree-lined Wilshire Country Club can provide additional clues this week. 

Notable correlating form: 

Brooke Henderson: 

Portland (1st, 1st) / LA Championship (1st) 

Hannah Green: 

Portland (1st) / LA Championship (1st, 1st) 

Xiyu Lin: 

Portland (2nd) / LA Championship (2nd) 

Moriya Jutanugarn: 

Portland (3rd, 3rd) / LA Championship (1st) 

Chella Choi: 

Portland (3rd, 5th) / LA Championship (6th) 

Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship (Palos Verdes Golf Club) 

The fairways are narrower and putting surfaces smaller at Palos Verdes than here in Portland, but with its tightly tree-lined fairways, strongly bunkered poa/bent mixed greens and West Coast location, there is enough to link these two courses. 

Notable correlating form: 

Marina Alex: 

Portland (1st) / Palos Verdes (1st) 

Georgia Hall: 

Portland (1st) / Palos Verdes (2nd) 

Andrea Lee: 

Portland (1st) / Palos Verdes (5th, 5th) 

Hannah Green: 

Portland (1st) / Palos Verdes (5th) 

Arkansas Championship (Pinnacle Country Club) 

Pinnacle Country Club provides a similar ball-striking test to Columbia Edgewater, with the tree-lined yet generous fairways, and average-large greens lending to low scoring. 

Notable correlating form: 

Stacy Lewis: 

Portland (1st) / Arkansas (1st) 

Austin Ernst: 

Portland (1st) / Arkansas (1st, 2nd) 

Marina Alex: 

Portland (1st) / Arkansas (8th, 9th) 

Candie Kung: 

Portland (2nd) / Arkansas (2nd) 

Pornanong Phatlum: 

Portland (2nd) / Arkansas (4th) 

Daniela Darquea: 

Portland (2nd) / Arkansas (6th) 

Moriya Jutanugarn: 

Portland (3rd, 3rd) / Arkansas (2nd, 4th) 

Chella Choi: 

Portland (3rd, 5th) / Arkansas (3rd, 6th) 

Lizette Salas: 

Portland (3rd) / Arkansas (5th) 

Kroger Queen City Championship (Kenwood Country Club) 

Kenwood Country Club has generous fairways, similarly-sized poa/bent mixed greens and measures a similar length to Columbia Edgewater. 

Having only staged two editions of the Kroger Queen City Championship, form-ties aren't abundant, though there have been a few notable performers. 

Notable correlating form: 

Andrea Lee: 

Portland (1st) / Kroger Queen (5th) 

Marina Alex: 

Portland (1st) / Kroger Queen (5th) 

Xiyu Lin: 

Portland (2nd) / Kroger Queen (2nd) 

THE FIELD 

This week's field is without any of the top-25 players in the world, with many of the top players in Paris readying themselves for next week's Olympics event. #26, Allisen Corpuz is the highest-ranked played in the field, closely followed by last week's CPKC Women's Open winner, Lauren Coughlin at #27. They represent just two of nine players from inside the top-50, which also includes our defending champion, Chanettee Wannasaen. 

Wannasaen is joined by just two other former winners, in the shape of Andrea Lee (2022) and Stacy Lewis (2017). 

Former #1 amateur, Ingrid Lindblad makes here first professional LPGA start outside of the majors; former highly-rated amateur, Lauren Stephenson steps back up to the main tour after earning the first pro win of her career two weeks ago on the Epson Tour; whilst major winners, Sei Young Kim and Jennifer Kupcho add a little more star power to a weakened field.  

SELECTIONS 

Market leaders: Mao Saigo 9/1, Jennifer Kupcho 12/1, Lauren Coughlin 12/1, Jenny Shin 14/1, Allisen Corpuz 14/1, Andrea Lee 18/1 

With such a depleted field, this week's contest looks wide open and represents an excellent opportunity for all involved. 

That being said, some of those at bigger prices won't get a better chance to win than they will this week. Therefore, I'm going to swerve the top of the betting and start this week's selections down the betting with a player I've followed a lot this year, Yealimi Noh. 

Yealimi Noh 

We were on Noh last week in Canada and while she could never really get involved, she did produce her second-best finish of the year, finishing 14th. It was her fourth top-25 of the season, with her best performance coming when 9th in the Chevron Championship. 

She's a player who excels off-the-tee but she's also been solid with her irons this season, ranking 45th in greens-in-regulation and 62nd in approach. She was excellent in this area over the weekend last week, with her final round performance her second-best single round in approach this season. As a player who's at her best when putting on poa surfaces, she looks a strong statistical match for this challenge. 

Noh has typically transferred that ability on poa to these surfaces in Portland and it has helped her to excellent finishes of 2nd in 2019 and 3rd in 2020. This is some of the strongest course form in the field and with the way she's hitting it right now, she has every chance of claiming a first LPGA victory this week, which could be just the start of her utilising the talent at her disposal. 

Moriya Jutanugarn 

Moriya Jutanugarn went into last week after a rough run of form but hit the top-25. Now back at a place where she's twice finished 3rd, I fancy her to keep the improvement coming this week. 

Jutanugarn actually started the season well, making seven of her first eight cuts and finishing inside the top-25 on five occasions, including a 5th-place finish in the T-Mobile Match Play. However, entering the CPKC Women's Open, she'd missed four of her previous nine cuts and recorded just one finish inside the top-50. 

She's looked good across most of her game this season, ranking top-50 in both approach and putting. The driver has been the issue but her 25th-place finish in Canada was the result of her best driving performance of the year, ranking 9th. 

Jutanugarn has finished top-20 on three occasions at Columbia Edgewater previously, including 3rd-place finishes in 2017 and 2020. She has a bunch of comp form to boot, as a previous winner at Wilshire CC, a runner-up in Arkansas and finishing 4th in the Meijer LPGA Classic, all which points to this being an ideal setup for her. 

Arpichaya Yubol 

I'm going to stick with the Thai theme and after Wannasaen gained her first LPGA victory in this event last year, I fancy compatriot, Arpichaya Yubol to make it back-to-back first-time winners for the country this year. 

Yubol had a difficult start to the season but turned her year around with a surprise 5th-place finish in the US Women's Open. She has continued to perform well since, playing six times following that and making every cut. 

Her approach play has been the key to this run of form, ranking 22nd for the season. She's also started to look much better on the greens and has some good form on poa surfaces. 

Indeed, despite missing the cut here on debut last year, she looked good on the greens over the first couple of rounds. With her ball-striking now in a better place than it was then, Yubol looks a lively contender this time around and with plenty of winning experience around the globe to call upon, she is an attractive price to perform this week. 

Ryann O'Toole 

Ryann O'Toole has started to find form with her irons in recent weeks and as a player with some encouraging comp form for this test, she's another who looked a little overpriced this week. 

O'Toole went close to recording her first U.S-based LPGA win right at the start of the year, finishing 2nd at Palos Verdes. She struggled for form initially following that, missing four of her last seven cuts but arrives here in better shape, having recorded finishes of 8-MC-35-19 in her last four starts. 

The putter has done a lot of the heavy lifting this year but she's starting to show some really positive signs in approach, recording her two best performances of the season in this area over those recent efforts; ranking top-20 when 8th in the Meijer LPGA Classic and when 35th in the Evian Championship two starts ago. 

O'Toole's three best putting performances this year have each come on poa and she's performed well on these very surfaces before, ranking 9th in 2022. She finished 9th that year – her best finish in this event – and with several top-5s in Arkansas and at Palos Verdes to her name, I'm confident she can take advantage of this field to put up a new tournament best this week. 

Jasmine Suwannapura 

Jasmine Suwannapura recorded her third top-10 of the year two starts ago in the Dana Open, and as a player with some strong form in this event, I'm taking her to be a feature at the top of the leaderboard again this week. 

Her first top-10 of the year came on her first start, when finishing 9th in the LPGA Drive on Championship. This was part of a strong beginning of the year, as she went on to finish 5th in the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship four starts later. She wasn't able to maintain that level of form, missing seven of her next nine cuts but she stepped up her game when 44th in the Evian Championship and followed with a 7th-place finish in the Dana Open two starts ago. 

Her result in the Dana Open was a result of her best tee-to-green performance of 2024 and as one of the strongest putters on tour in the last two years, she looks to have every part of her game in a good place. 

Suwannapura's two best performances at this course have come over recent years, as she finished 5th in 2020 and 23rd last year. As a former winner of the Dana Open, as well as possessing good efforts in the Meijer LPGA Classic and at Palos Verdes, her comp form is very promising and can help her to a second solo LPGA title this week. 

Lauren Stephenson 

Lauren Stephenson was once ranked the #3 amateur in the world and after gaining the first professional win of her career two starts ago on the Epson Tour, I'm taking her at a big price to immediately follow up on that with a strong performance back on the LPGA. 

Stephenson has almost exclusively plied her trade on the LPGA since turning pro in 2018, though due to an underwhelming year in 2023 she's predominantly played on second tier this year, on the Epson Tour. 

She had been performing well prior to gaining that victory, recording six top-20s and four top-10s before winning the Twin Bridges Championship by two strokes.  

Interestingly, Wannasaen also came into this event after a strong performance on the Epson Tour on her previous start last year – finishing 2nd – and I'm hoping Stephenson can follow suit here. 

At her best, she's an excellent iron player, as shown by her ranking of 9th in approach on the LPGA in 2022. This is something that has served her well on her previous visits here. 

After missing the cut on her debut in the Portland Classic in 2019, Stephenson has gone on to make her last four, twice finishing inside the top-40. A 6th-place finish in the Meijer LPGA Classic suggests she can improve on that, and with confidence flying high after breaking her professional duck, this undoubtedly talented individual may just be a different player back at this level. 

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