| Portland Open Invitational | |
| Location: | Portland, Oregon |
| Establishment: | 1944 |
| Course: | Columbia Edgewater Country Club |
| Par: | 72 |
| Yardage: | [1] |
| Tour: | PGA Tour |
| Format: | Stroke play |
| Month Played: | September |
| Aggregate: | 261 Ben Hogan (1945) |
| To-Par: | –27 as above |
| Final Year: | 1966 |
| Final Champion: |  Bert Yancey |
| Map: | USA#USA Oregon |
| Map Label: | Columbia Edgewater CC |
| Map Relief: | yes |
| Map Size: | 200 |
| Coordinates: | 45.6°N -122.643°W |
The Portland Open Invitational was a professional golf tournament in the northwest United States on the PGA Tour, played in Portland, Oregon. Established by Robert A. Hudson with a $10,000 purse in 1944, it was played from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1966. The event was hosted eight times at the Portland Golf Club,[2] and four times at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club.[3] First played as the Portland Open, the revived 1959 event played as the Portland Centennial Open Invitational, in honor of Oregon's centennial of statehood.[4]
Sam Snead won the inaugural event in 1944,[5] and Ben Hogan won in 1945 by fourteen strokes,[6] and also won the 1946 PGA Championship, then a match play event, held at the Portland Golf Club.[7] The club also hosted the Ryder Cup in 1947; the U.S. team was captained by Hogan and won 11–1. Hogan was a runner-up in 1948, a stroke back in an 18-hole playoff.[8] [9]
The tournament was dominated by three-time winners Billy Casper (1959–61)[10] and Jack Nicklaus (1962, 1964–65).[11] [12] Nicklaus' $3,500 win during his rookie season in 1962 concluded three weeks of victories;[13] he took the massive winner's share of $50,000 in the exhibition World Series of Golf in Ohio,[14] [15] and then won his second tour title at the Seattle Open Invitational, which paid $4,300.[16] [17] Both Casper and Nicklaus won at both courses.
Bert Yancey won the last edition in 1966 and took only 102 putts.[18] It stood as the tour's 72-hole record for fewest putts for over a decade, until Bob Menne had only 99 at the Tournament Players Championship in 1977,[19] but tied for 47th.[20]
| Venue | Years | |
|---|---|---|
| 1944, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1965 | ||
| 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966 |
| Year | Winner | Score | To par | Margin of victory | Runner(s)-up | Purse (US$) | Winner's share ($) | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portland Open Invitational | |||||||||
| 271 | −17 | 3 strokes | Billy Casper | 50,000 | 6,600 | ||||
| Jack Nicklaus (3) | 273 | −15 | 3 strokes | Dave Marr | 50,000 | 6,600 | |||
| Jack Nicklaus (2) | 275 | −13 | 3 strokes | Ken Venturi | 40,000 | 5,800 | |||
| 272 | −16 | Playoff | Mason Rudolph | 30,000 | 4,300 | [21] | |||
| 269 | −19 | 1 stroke | George Bayer | 25,000 | 3,500 | ||||
| Billy Casper (3) | 273 | −15 | 1 stroke | Dave Hill | 25,000 | 3,500 | |||
| Billy Casper (2) | 266 | −22 | 2 strokes | Paul Harney | 27,500 | 2,800 | [22] | ||
| Portland Centennial Open Invitational | |||||||||
| 269 | −19 | 3 strokes | Bob Duden Dave Ragan | 20,000 | 2,800 | ||||
| Portland Open Invitational | |||||||||
| align=center colspan=9 | 1949–1958: No tournament | ||||||||
| 1948 | 270 | −18 | Playoff | Ben Hogan (2nd) Johnny Palmer (3rd) | 15,000 | 2,450 | |||
| 1947 | 270 | −18 | 6 strokes | 10,000 | 2,000 | [23] | |||
| align=center colspan=9 | 1946: No tournament | ||||||||
| 1945 | 261 | −27 | 14 strokes | 14,333 | 2,666 | [24] | |||
| Portland Open | |||||||||
| 1944 | 289 | +1 | 2 strokes | 16,000 | 2,675 | ||||