Safeway Classic Preview

The ladies are back in the USA this week for the Safeway Classic Presented by Coca-Cola.  For the second time, renowned Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club will be the site.  The Portland, Oregon area has hosted an LPGA event since 1972, making it one of the "Old Reliables" on the Tour schedule.  M.J. Hur defeated Suzann Pettersen and Michele Redman in a sudden-death playoff last year for her first career victory.

Ghost Creek is the public course at Pumpkin Ridge (Witch Hollow is the private course where the 2003 U.S. Women's Open was held).  Despite previews to the contrary, it played on the easy side last year - just one-third of a stroke over par.  This is only our second 54-hole event of 2010.  ShopRite and Arkansas in mid-September are the only other 54s on the schedule until the three-week Asian swing begins.  One oddity about the Friday start - Golf Channel's first-round coverage begins at 9:30am local time.  I hope nobody on the GC crew oversleeps.

Safeway is Event #15 on the schedule, which makes it the cutoff point for the second and final 2010 Priority Status reordering.  Players from Categories 14 through 20 will be reordered by their money list standing as of Sunday night and the new list goes into effect at Arkansas.  To this point, 21 players in those categories have earned money in 2010 and they will line up beginning with Position #145.  After seeing only six non-major full-field events among the first 14, our next six tournaments are all of the full-field variety.  This week begins the home stretch for many players when it comes to setting up their status for 2011, and any player who significantly improves her money total at Safeway might earn an extra chance or two to play in the final four events on that home stretch.

For the second year in a row, Safeway is the first event after a multi-week layoff for most players (Solheim was the week prior in 2009).  For some reason, once again this event's field cutoff point is much lower than I expected.  Even though the Field Score is quite high (only three of my Top 40 aren't here - two non-members and a retiree), a lot of the rank-and-file are passing on Portland.  Quite a few players who really need the cash would have been able to play had they only shown up - Cat-17 players like Whitney Wade and Angela Buzminski along with Cat-20s Jessica Shepley, Jee Hae Lee, Pornanong Phatlum and Jane Chin.  There is no Futures Tour event this week so I don't know why these players aren't here.

Picking Na Yeon Choi to win the British Open didn't end my drought, which has now reached 22 straight events without picking an outright winner.  This parity stuff is killing me.  NYC did finish in the Top 5 at Royal Birkdale - her fourth straight - so as long as she keeps doing that, I'm sticking with her.