Young Pumpkin Ridge Making Its Mark With USGA

By David Shefter, USGA

North Plains, Ore. – Few golf courses have ascended into the national spotlight in terms of championship competition quicker than Pumpkin Ridge, just outside of Portland. While some venues wait years and sometimes decades to land an elite competition, it only took four for Pumpkin Ridge to get its first.

Opened in 1992 and designed by Robert Cupp, Pumpkin Ridge, which boasts 36 holes (Witch Hollow is private and Ghost Creek is public), hosted the 1996 U.S. Amateur, an event where Tiger Woods would make history in a thrilling 38-hole match. No player in the 95 previous playings of the National Amateur had ever won three consecutive titles. Woods would not only take medalist honors, but he would rally from a five-hole deficit to defeat Steve Scott.

Woods brought out his trademark fist-pump when he holed a long birdie putt at the 35th hole to square the match before taking it three holes later.

One year later, the USGA was back at Pumpkin Ridge to stage the U.S. Women’s Open, and again history was made. This time, Alison Nicholas of England became the first competitor to win the title with a double-digit, under-par total (10 under), besting crowd favorite Nancy Lopez by a stroke and denying the LPGA Hall of Famer an opportunity to win her first Open title. The defeat was bittersweet for Lopez, who became the first golfer in Women’s Open history to post four rounds in the 60s. In fact, coming into the championship, Lopez had registered just three sub-70 rounds in 20 previous appearances.

The championship also was bitter for Annika Sorenstam, who was bidding for a record three consecutive Open titles. The Swede struggled in her first two rounds and failed to make the cut. In nine Open appearances, Sorenstam has not played the final 36 holes only twice (1997 and ’99).

Both courses were in the spotlight when the USGA came calling again in 2000. This time, the U.S. Junior Amateur and Girls’ Junior were held at the same venue for only the second time ever. The Witch Hollow and Ghost Creek layouts were alternated by the male and female competitors, with the final two days of match play held at Ghost Creek. The switching of golf courses created a challenge for the maintenance staff as the green speeds had to be altered depending on which gender was playing that particular layout. For the last two days (quarters, semis and final), a happy medium was used.

On the boys’ side, Matt Rosenfeld, a semifinalist the previous year at York (Pa.) Country Club where he fell to the eventual champion, Hunter Mahan, defeated Ryan Moore in the final, 3 and 2. Two years later, Moore would win the Amateur Public Links Championship. "I love Pumpkin Ridge," said Moore at a recent media outing to promote the 2003 APL. "It’s one of my favorite courses."

In the girls’ competition, Lisa Ferrero built an enormous 6-up lead and then held on for a 3-and-1 victory over Ina Kim. Ferrero now plays for the University of Texas while Kim matriculated at Northwestern University.

While the club hosts its second Women’s Open this week on the Witch Hollow course, Pumpkin Ridge is already slated to conduct the 2006 U.S. Senior Open. That championship will be waged on the Ghost Creek Course. That would give Pumpkin Ridge five USGA events in just a 10-year period.

For comparison, historic Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., which has hosted 15 USGA championships, including seven U.S. Opens, had five USGA events in a 14-year period. Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club near Pittsburgh hosted five USGA championships in a 16-year period from 1919-35.

"It’s a great test of golf, a course with all the tangibles," said 2002 U.S. Women’s Open champion Juli Inkster of Pumpkin Ridge. "Once you get the ball in the fairway, it’s a great iron course."

Added Gay Davis, one of Pumpkin Ridge’s co-founders and the chairman for the 2003 Women’s Open: "The genesis of Pumpkin Ridge was that we wanted to have a course that could host the Women’s Open, the Senior Open, the (U.S.) Amateur and the (U.S.) Open. "We set attendance records for the Amateur and Women’s Open."