Fore!

The family and I are in sunny Portland, Oregon, to attend the LPGA Safeway Classic.

We got stuck in wretched construction traffic late last night on I-5 and finally made it to our hotel, and bed, around 2 AM. So much for getting a good night's sleep and hitting the course early. :/

We arrived at the Columbia-Edgewater Country Club around 10 AM and, after running the gauntlet at the Free Safeway Stuff tent, hit the course on the hunt for Ashley Prange, winner of the Golf Channel's "Big Break V". We got lucky and she was still playing after her 7:30 AM start (on the back 9). Of course we took the long way around and ended up walking nearly the entire course before we caught up with her on #7. (Hint: start at the higher-numbered holes and work back.) When she finished up on #9, Laura got Ashley to autograph her visor!!

With Ashley done for the day (at +10 she missed the cut by a lot; hope she had fun anyway), we headed up to #1 where some of the big names were set to tee off. We saw Juli Inkster, Morgan Pressel, Karrie Webb, Mi Hyun Kim, and of course Natalie Gulbis (whom I call "shrimp-head" because her signature hairstyle, as rendered in "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005" for Playstation2, strongly resembles ebi sushi). I like Natalie just fine, but there's this horde of fans following her around. Both the fact of the horde and its constituents are pretty much eye-roll-worthy.

Feet tired, and cranky, we decided to change up our style of spectating for a while, and headed back to the #9 green with our camp chairs. Schlepping those things finally paid off as we staked out a comfy spot on the edge of the green with a view back up the fairway. The last of the morning's #10 starters were finishing up, including Paula Creamer, Ai Miyazato, Pat Hurst and Christina Kim. We got to see Christina kick her putter after an unsatisfying shot!

We stayed until the headliners from #1 made it around to #9. Once Natalie's horde cleared out to the back 9 (eye-roll), we got to check out the concession stands and the Safeway 19th Hole beer & wine garden. Nothin' like free samples of alcoholic beverages in 90 degree heat on a nearly-empty stomach!

While Greg took his turn sampling, Laura and I sat down on the bleachers at the #10 tee to watch more golfers "turn the corner". A random caddy came over and handed Laura an autographed (used!) golf ball, which turned out to be from Brooke Tull. Never heard of her but she's got two new fans now! Her tee shot didn't go too well, but we were relieved to check her scorecard online tonight and learn that she saved par. :)

We checked out of the tournament around 4 PM, rested, and headed out for some top-rated cuisine at Russell Street BBQ just off MLK. Amazing! We will need to find a pretext to return to Portland soon, because they were all out of chocolate fried pies.

Thanks to high speed internet at our hotel (Holiday Inn Express Jantzen Beach: recommended), we found out that a moderate leaderboard shakeup went down after we left, with four golfers jumping up to T1 and the day's leader, Jee Young Lee, dropping back to T11. We also got to check tomorrow's pairings and tee times, thereby confirming that we get to sleep in a bit. Technology rules!

I think perhaps the Safeway Classic could be an annual event for us. It's a lot of fun. I would even say I don't mind missing the Boeing Greater Seattle Classic (which is always the same weekend), though I'm not sure Greg agrees yet. It's too bad this is the only LPGA event even remotely close to the Pacific Northwest (and the Futures Tour doesn't have any)!

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