Tournament Golf Foundation (TGF), the organizers of the Safeway Classic Presented by Coca-Cola, will host a one day amateur-only event that guarantees the winner a spot in the LPGA tour’s oldest non-major tournament.
The Safeway Classic Amateur Open will be held at Langdon Farms Golf Club in Aurora, OR (fifteen minutes south of Portland) on Monday, August 12, beginning at 7:00 AM. Any woman amateur golfer with an established USGA handicap of 2.0 or less is eligible to compete.
The winner of the event will earn a guaranteed spot in the 72-hole Safeway Classic tournament proper to be held August 29 - September 1, at Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland, OR. The second and third place finishers will earn spots alongside professionals in the tournament’s Monday qualifier to be held on Monday, August 26th. The top two finishers from the qualifier will also earn entry into the Safeway Classic.
According to Tom Maletis, President of Tournament Golf Foundation, "Supporting women's golf at both the professional and amateur levels has been important to TGF since its inception. Providing amateurs with the chance to test their games against the pros has become a tremendously rewarding tradition for us."
Eight former Safeway Classic Amateur Open participants have gone on to become members of the LPGA (Ayaka Kaneko, Paige Mackenzie, Jennie Lee, Sydnee Michaels, Jane Rah, Tiffany Joh, Mi Jung (MJ) Hur, and Ryann O'Toole). Mi Jung Hur won the Safeway Classic in 2009, just two years after participating in the Safeway Classic Amateur Open.
Last year, Lee Lopez of UCLA won the Safeway Classic Amateur Open in a three-way playoff with Aram Choi (Portland State) and Seshia-Lei Telles (Oregon State). Choi and Telles earned spots in the Monday qualifier for the Safeway Classic.
The Safeway Classic Amateur Open will have a $95 entry fee and players can get an application by calling the Tournament Golf Foundation office at 503-626-2711 or by visiting the news section of the tournament web site, www.safewayclassic.com. Entry deadline for the event will be August 8, 2013.
The Safeway Classic is the oldest non-major championship on the LPGA Tour. The event, originally called the Portland Classic, has now donated over $17 million to local children’s charities since its inception in 1972, with $14 million coming in the past 17 years with Safeway as title sponsor.
The 2013 edition of the The Safeway Classic Presented by Coca-Cola will be held at Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland, OR. The purse for the event will be $1.3 million. The tournament will be broadcast on The Golf Channel all four days. Mika Miyazato won the 2012 Safeway Classic.
Tournament Golf Foundation is a local Portland area group of volunteers who donate their time and provide the primary operations for the annual event. Begun in 1972, the group is now comprised of 38 local individuals and couples.
Langdon Farms Golf Club is ranked as the #1 course to host tournaments and corporate events in Portland, Oregon and rated four out of five stars by Golf Digest’s Best Places to Play. Designed by John Fought and Robert Cupp, Langdon Farms opened for play in 1995 and is professionally managed by OB Sports Golf Management.
For more information on the Safeway Classic and Tournament Golf Foundation, visit www.safewayclassic.com or call 503-626-2711. For more information on Langdon Farms Golf Club or for practice rounds, visit www.langdonfarms.com or call 503-678-4653.)
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