In a thrilling conclusion at Columbia Edgewater Country Club, Moriya Jutanugarn secured her third LPGA Tour victory at the 2024 Portland Classic with a stellar final-round 66.
This win marks a significant comeback for Jutanugarn, whose last solo victory came in 2018 at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship.
“Of course it’s very happy, and also, you know, like I think it’s been a while I haven’t been in contention and also like to handle this situation. Of course it’s like nervous and exciting out there,” Jutanugarn expressed. “To be honest, like the last two season wasn’t feel really good, you know, like to myself and stuff. But keep working on something and I guess just the hard work, it pay off.”
Starting the final round three shots behind leader Andrea Lee, Jutanugarn was positioned in solo sixth place.
Her experience as a 12-year LPGA Tour veteran showed as she maintained composure and steadily climbed the leaderboard.
Playing in the third-to-last group with Polly Mack, she quickly picked up momentum with birdies on the 3rd, 7th, and 8th holes.
Jutanugarn’s charge continued with a string of birdies on the back nine, particularly on holes 12 through 14.
Her birdie on the 14th gave her a solo lead, and a remarkable chip-in on the 17th marked her 23rd birdie of the tournament, pushing her score to -23.
Despite a bogey on the 18th hole, her first in 72 holes, Jutanugarn finished with a two-stroke lead.
“I would say so excited and so proud of her, because like I know she been waiting for so long,” said her sister Ariya Jutanugarn.
“Even like we won together at 2021, but she always say like, Oh, I want to win like by myself. You know, it’s good time we won together, but like she go through up and down in her life.
She been like really struggle and this year is really hard for her. She be like really struggle and this year, this tournament is show like she well deserve because she never give up.
No matter what happened, she always work hard. Like even I’m play some tournament I finish better, I’m lazy and not practice, but she is never do that. She work so hard and I feel like she well deserve it.”
Trailing Jutanugarn, Narin An, Nataliya Guseva, and Angel Yin all made notable final-round efforts to finish in a tie for second place.
An, a rookie on the LPGA Tour, delivered an impressive performance with a hole-in-one on the 16th, finishing with a round of 66. Guseva, also a rookie, marked her best LPGA finish to date with a five-birdie round and a T2 result.
Yin, overcoming an ankle injury, managed a solid performance to also share second place, her best finish of the season.
Polly Mack, the first-round leader, and Dewi Weber, the second-round leader, also achieved personal milestones with Mack finishing T5 and Weber in solo eighth, both securing their best finishes in non-team events on the LPGA Tour.
Third-round leader Andrea Lee, despite a disappointing final round of 74, finished in a tie for ninth, marking her fifth top-10 finish of the season.
In a tournament filled with personal triumphs and career-best performances, Moriya Jutanugarn’s victory at the 2024 Portland Classic stands out as a testament to perseverance and hard work.
