Portland will always hold a special place in Mi Jung Hur’s heart. She earned her first LPGA Tour victory as a rookie at the 2009 Cambia Portland Classic, then called the Safeway Classic and held at the famed Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club. Eleven years later and Hur still keeps in touch with the host family she stayed with that week.
“They're my American parents, so if I can, see them and we have dinner,” said Hur. “It's really nice and comfortable.”
Hur opened her 10th Cambia Portland Classic appearance with a 3-under 69 on Thursday, carding three birdies on her back nine to surge up the leaderboard. Portland already feels like home thanks to her friends, and Hur said she finds even more similarities between OGC and her native Korea.
“I'm Korean and in Korea there is lots of hilly course, and we used to walk all the up hills and down hills, we used to play all the slopes, so it wasn't that bad for me,” said Hur. “I was trying to focus on my speed on the putting green. The greens are so fast. The conditions are perfect. I just try to focus on my speed.”
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