Moriya Jutanugarn claims third LPGA Tour title

Moriya Jutanugarn won the Portland Classic, her third career LPGA Tour title and first individual victory in six years.

Starting the final round at Columbia Edgewater Country Club three shots behind 54-hole leader Andrea Lee, the Thai champion shot a 66 (-6) round to earn a two-shot victory over three players.

Moriya Jutanugarn, results

Jutanugarn finished with a -22 overall, after a round with seven birdies and a single bogey on the 18th hole.

Narin An (66), Nataliya Guseva (68) and Angel Yin (69) tied for second. The 21-year-old Guseva is the first Russian player to earn an LPGA Tour card.

Jutanugarn’s previous individual win on the LPGA Tour came in 2018 at the HUGEL-JTBC LA Open. In 2021, she and her younger sister Ariya Jutanugarn won the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational.

“I’m very excited and proud of her because I know I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” said 12-time LPGA Tour winner Ariya Jutanugarn, who shot a 65 on Sunday to finish ninth, 17 points behind.

Sofia Garcia (68) and So Mi Lee (70) tied for sixth at 19-under, while second-round leader Dewi Weber (72) was a solitary eighth, one shot back.

Heading into this week’s Olympics, none of the top 30 players in the world were in action. The only Olympian in Portland was India’s Aditi Ashok, who finished tied for 22nd at -14.

Italy’s Benedetta Moresco parred her first two rounds and failed to make the cut, set at -5.

Sandwiched between last week’s CPKC Open in Canada and the Women’s Olympic Games in Paris is the Portland Classic. This beloved and historic stop on the Tour returns once again to its longtime home at Oregon’s Columbia Edgewater Country Club, where it will run from Thursday, August 1st to Sunday, August 4th for $1.75 million in prize money.

More than a dozen major champions are set to compete in Portland, including US Open champion Allisen Corpuz. Women’s Open 2023. Jennifer Kupcho, who won the 2022 Chevron Championship and then tied for eighth in Portland that season, returns to action at Columbia Edgewater. Danielle Kang, who has played a more limited schedule this season, comes to Portland, where she tied for 12th in 2020 and tied for 14th in 2023.

Also in attendance is Jeongeun Lee6, who tied for eighth at the 2021 Portland Classic. Other notable players include Epson Tour Player of the Year Gabi Ruffels, who makes her first appearance since the Evian Championship and will look to recapture the form that led to three top-three finishes earlier this season.

After struggling early in her first LPGA season, Thailand’s Chanettee Wannasaen found her week of form at the 2023 Portland Classic. The rookie, who had missed eight consecutive cuts during her first season on Tour, managed to post a -9 in the final round to win by a clear four-shot margin at Columbia Edgewater Country Club. Wannasaen earned her second LPGA Tour victory not long ago at the Dana Open and has two more top-10 finishes in 2024. She comes in to defend her title after missing the cut in Canada.

Just a week before she leaves for Paris to represent India at the Olympics, Aditi Ashok will compete at the Portland Classic. Ashok is the only Olympian in the field, as the other players, who will represent their respective countries, have opted to skip this week’s Tour stop in preparation for their trip to France. The Indian will certainly be one to watch this week in Portland before competing in her third Olympics.

She has made headlines in both of her previous Olympic appearances, being the youngest golfer in the field in the women’s golf competition in Rio in 2016 and coming close to a medal in Tokyo, finishing just one shot shy of the podium in fourth. Ashok returns to Portland, where she tied for 15th in 2017, and is coming off a missed cut last week in Canada at the CPKC Women’s Open.

Benedetta Moresco is back after finishing 19th in Canada last week. Her first cut on the LPGA this season, which sees her playing on the Epson Tour with a few invites to the main circuit, thanks to her QS finish last year, bodes well for a finish.

The Portland Classic has a history that stretches back over