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][7] and also won the 1946 PGA Championship, then a match play event, held at the Portland Golf Club.[8] 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.[9][10]
The tournament was dominated by three-time winners Billy Casper (1959–61)[11] and Jack Nicklaus (1962, 1964–65).[12][13] Nicklaus' $3,500 win during his rookie season in 1962 concluded three weeks of victories;[14] he took the massive winner's share of $50,000 in the exhibition World Series of Golf in Ohio,[15][16] and then won his second tour title at the Seattle Open Invitational, which paid $4,300.[17][18] Both Casper and Nicklaus won at both courses.
Bert Yancey won the last edition in 1966 and took only 102 putts.[19] 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,[20] but tied for 47th.[21]
45°28′37″N 122°45′47″W / 45.477°N 122.763°W / 45.477; -122.763