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2015 Cambia Portland Classic Moving Day Hot Shots

By Elizabeth Bethel

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There was a lot of good golf played at the Cambia Portland Classic on Moving Day up and down the leaderboard.  Up at the top Brooke Henderson, who started the week as a Monday qualifier, is looking more and more at home on the big stage.  Henderson used the 3rd round to establish what appears to be a commanding lead going into Sunday’s final round.

READ MORE about Brooke Henderson’s Personal Road to the LPGA

A bit further down the board Jaye Marie Green, whose world shifted on its axis with that last-minute call from the USGA in June, is feeling much more optimistic about her game.  Green carded a 63on Saturday, the low round for the tournament so far, collected one of the six Moving Day eagles, and tweeted out this bubbly affirmation of golf’s capricious benevolence.

Solheim Cup Team Europe’s vice-captain Maria McBride radiated a mighty grin after she collected another of those eagles with her ace on the par 3 13th and Joanna Klatten holed out from the fairway on the 18th to close her round with a smile as well.

Under gloriously sunny skies and on a receptive golf course where putts were holding their line and rolling true, the eagle celebrations were eventually eclipsed by the promise of a battle among the trio who finished their day at the top of the leaderboard.

Sunday Shootout: Brooke Henderson, Morgan Pressel & Sandra Gal

Brooke Henderson, Morgan Pressel and Sandra Gal all carded 7-under par 65s, not quite as good as Jaye Marie Green’s 63 but good enough to put them into the final group on Sunday.  Henderson and Gal got there without bogeys.  Pressel sprinkled two on the front nine, but quickly got the shots back with an extraordinarily hot putter.

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Henderson ended the her 3rd round with a 5-shot lead over Pressel, her closest challenger, and will go into Sunday’s final round with a clear advantage.  Although a win in Portland would get her to her goal — Tour membership — Henderson’s already indicated that if she wins she’ll defer the start of her rookie year to the beginning of the 2016 season.

Just as I was thinking that nothing could match the excitement of the Tour’s 2015 rookie class, it’s more than interesting to contemplate a 2016 rookie class headed by 2015 US Women’s Open champion In Gee Chun and Brooke Henderson.  It’s exhilarating!

But Henderson needs to keep her mind on the business at hand — delivering another low round on Sunday.  She’s been in this position before — in San Francisco at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic and again at Las Colinas and the North Texas Shootout in May — and both times bobbled the ball on the weekend.  Let’s see if she can close the deal in Portland, playing her final round with Morgan Pressel and Sandra Gal, who are both delivering excellent golf this week and are equally hungry for the win.

Sandra Gal moved on Moving Day, from a starting T23rd position to a tie for 3rd at the finish!  Gal’s pushing hard for a spot on Team Europe’s Solheim Cup roster and a win or even a high finish this week would push her up in the Rolex Rankings and put her in a much stronger position to claim that prize.   

Still, Gal’s not going to get ahead of herself.  She’s taking things one shot and one round at a time and knows there’s work to be done on Sunday.

"“One good round isn’t going to do it on the weekend.  I would probably need another low one tomorrow.  But looking at the leaderboard, Brooke Henderson is doing really well after nine, so I’ll probably have to do some catch up.”"

Morgan Pressel, with her own history as a teen phenom, is probably in the strongest position to challenge Henderson on Sunday.  Pressel delivered an inspired game on Moving Day, wielding a red-hot flat stick that netted her a total of 9 birdies in 18 holes.

Pressel’s been working with her coach to tweak her putting and says she’s ready for the final round showdown:

"“I’ll take another nine birdies [on Sunday]. I think I need to just give myself a lot of opportunities and eliminate a couple of the sloppy mistakes that I’ve made the last few days and I think it’ll put me up there towards the end . . .”"

Pressel, Gal and Henderson tee off at 11:10am local time on Sunday and Golf Channel will begin coverage of the Cambia Portland Classic final round in progress at 4pm ET.  By my calculation the featured group will still be on the front nine when I sit down to watch the action unfold.

Next: Women's PGA Championship Gets Hot Venues for 2017 & 2018

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