Portland has always held a special place in Juli Inkster’s heart.
Back in 1999, Inkster won in Portland at what was then the Safeway LPGA Golf Championship, her fifth victory of that season, which earned her a place in the LPGA Hall of Fame by virtue of her 27th career point.
The 31-time LPGA winner hasn’t been back to play in Portland in years, but with the U.S. Women’s Senior Open in San Diego next week, Inkster has been brushing up her game in hopes of making her mark. After a T-3 at the Toledo Classic a few weeks ago — an event that had both Epson Tour players as well as those from the Legends of the LPGA circuit Inkster is in the field for this week’s LPGA stop, the Standard Portland Classic at Columbia Edgewater Country Club.
The Portland event is the longest-standing non-major event on the LPGA and Inkster is happy to be back in support it. She’s one of seven past champs in the field as Moriya Jutanugarn (2024), Chanettee Wannasaen (2023), Jin Young Ko (2021), Hannah Green (2019), Stacy Lewis (2017) and Brooke Henderson (2015, 2016) are also scheduled to play.
“It’s always been one of I think a lot of people’s favorites because it’s really family-oriented and caddie-oriented. Stan the caddie master does a heck of a job for all the caddies. Makes everybody feel welcome,” she said. “It’s just a great area, the Northwest, to have a tournament. I know they’ve gone through some rough times trying to get sponsors, ups and downs, but I hope everybody just continues to support it because it is a legacy.”
Of course, the timing had to work out. First, Inkster Award winner Carolina Chacarra was scheduled to play after winning the award back in June. And while the seven-time major winner has been known for truly mentoring the winner of her annual award, she’s happy to impart her knowledge on as many players as possible.
In fact, during the Toledo event, which was hosted by Stacy Lewis, Inkster recently took part in a summit between players, young and old. It’s something she hopes to see more of in the future.
“It was great. It was really nice of them. They came up and asked a lot of questions,” Inkster said. “You know, I think it would really behoove the LPGA to do more of those Senior Epsons. It’s really the first mandatory meeting I’ve ever been in that no one was on their phones and they were all really engaged in what we had to say.
“Try to get them to learn more about the LPGA and what we need from them coming up as they progress through their journey.”
The now 65-year-old Inkster, who was a nine-time U.S. Solheim Cup team member (1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011) and three-time captain (2015, 2017, 2019), said she’s happy to do her part in terms of touting the LPGA, but she feels like younger players also need to understand why it’s so important they feel the same passion for carrying that torch.
“We’ve had a lot of great leaders leading us to this, but this is an organization where we’re individual employees. If we want this to continue we have to work at that. That’s doing your part in the pro-am, doing your part in the sponsor’s dinners,” she said. “And the fans. We need to get more fans out here. Girls golf is growing rapidly and there are idols. They look up to us. Well, maybe not me, but the generation that are playing right now.
“We’ve got to make golf look fun. I think that’s our next thing, is improve a little bit on being a little more emotional out there and just enjoying the game. Everybody would kill to be able to do what we do for a living, and to be able to go out there and play golf and compete against the best in the world on the LPGA is something not to take for granted.”
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