Portland Classic 1st Round Featured Groups

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Fourth-seeded Suzann Pettersen is paired with Azahara Munoz and Lizette Salas. This pairing is going to give us a Solheim Cup preview. While Pettersen’s made the European team, Munoz and Salas are still waiting out a decision. Expect them both to be playing flat out. But can they match Pettersen?

Read More: A Closer Look at Lizette Salas

With a 2015 victory and 4 additional top-10 finishes Pettersen’s going to establish early dominance in this group. She’s solid off the tee and she’s relatively accurate, hitting 75% of the fairways. Her weakness is putting. She’s been averaging 30+ putts per round.

Statistically, Munoz has a game that’s equivalent to Pettersen’s and should play about even with her in the early rounds, although Munoz has had trouble putting 4 solid rounds together this year. She’s been making the cut but then falling back down the board during the weekend.

Lizette Salas, who’s considerably shorter off the tee than both Pettersen and Munoz, is also considerably more accurate and less likely to find trouble in the Columbia Edgewater rough; and Salas is also more accurate on the putting surface than either of her playing partners, averaging 29 putts per round and ranking among the top-10 in putting right now.

Pettersen, by comparison ranked 83rd and is averaging 30+ putts per round and Munoz, also with a 30+ putts per round average, ranked 83 on the Tour in putting.

Look for Salas, who’s working hard to make the United States Solheim Cup team (she needs to get in front of Gerina Piller in Solheim Cup points to secure a spot on the roster), to take advantage of her greater accuracy off the tee and her superiority in putting to beat the oddsmakers and take the lead inside this group.

Follow the live action at the Portland Classic on the LPGA electronic leaderboard beginning at 7:15am PT Thursday, August 13. While you’re waiting for television coverage to begin you can follow ProGolf now on Twitter @ProGolfNow for updates of the rounds in progress. Golf Channel begins coverage of the first round in progress at 5pm, ET.

Next: Players to Watch at the Portland Classic

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