Polly Mack of Germany shot a career-best 63 to set the early pace at the Portland Classic on Thursday in Oregon.
Mack piled up seven birdies and an eagle at Columbia Edgewater Country Club to race out to a 9-under-par start. By day’s end, she held a one-shot lead over Samantha Wagner, Russia’s Nataliya Guseva and South Korea’s Hyo Joon Jang. Emma Talley and Ecuador’s Daniela Darquea were two back at 7-under 65.
Mack, 25, was having a difficult sophomore LPGA season leading up to Thursday. She had made just three of 13 cuts, missing six in a row before making the cut at last week’s CPKC Women’s Open. Her best finish of 2024 was a T21.
“It feels so good. Feels like I’ve been working for almost years for this kind of stuff to happen,” Mack said. “Just finally to see a result on the scorecard, not just in the game, on the course, but also seeing it written down is really, really nice. I’m sure my team behind me is as happy as I am right now with this one round.”
Mack started her round on the back nine and wasted no time, starting out birdie-birdie-eagle after making her eagle at the par-5 12th. She added four more birdies, including on each of her last two holes, in between some important saves to keep bogeys off her card.
“For example, 18, my No. 9 today, I was under the trees on the left,” Mack said. “Had to kind of punch it out, try get it into the right green bunker. Didn’t quite get there, but had a really good angle and made a really good up and down there. That could have been a bogey basically.
“Yeah, made some good up-and-downs.”
Mack is ranked No. 419 in the world, while one player right behind her, Wagner, is even further back at No. 513 in the world rankings.
Wagner had to play the Monday qualifier to secure her first start on tour this season.
“It’s kind of tough for me because I lost my status after last season and felt like I had a pretty solid year,” Wagner said. “Just been working really hard with my team in the offseason and on (the Epson Tour) this year and haven’t quite seen the results I want.
“But I know the game is there and I was happy to see it all come together today.”
Wagner and Guseva had bogey-free, eight-birdie rounds, while Jang racked up nine birdies with one bogey.
Lauren Coughlin, fresh off her first LPGA title at last week’s CPKC Women’s Open in Calgary, opened with a 6-under 66. She is tied for seventh with a slew of golfers that includes Angel Yin, Cheyenne Knight and South Koreans So Mi Lee and Jenny Shin.
–Field Level Media