Columbia Edgewater tests driving position at the Portland Classic before a player ever thinks about attacking a flag. The fairways look generous enough from television. From ground level, framed by towering Pacific Northwest trees and old bunkering, they become something else entirely.
Jeeno Thitikul learned that lesson again on the final Sunday in 2026. She began the round two shots behind co-leaders Sophia Schubert and Arpichaya Yubol, which meant patience alone would not win her the tournament. Birdies were coming, and somebody had to chase them.
Thitikul opened with a birdie and then tore through Nos. 3 through 7 with five straight. According to the Associated Press report from the final round, she eventually signed for a 64 and a 22-under winning total, one shot better than Yubol and former champion Chanettee Wannasaen. The number suggests an attack. The way she produced it tells the more interesting story.
At Columbia Edgewater, the best tee shot is not always the longest one. Sometimes it is the drive that finishes ten yards left of where everyone else appears to be aiming.
What Macan left behind
A.V. Macan designed Columbia Edgewater in 1925, decades before professional golfers talked about ball speed, launch windows or strokes gained off the tee. Yet his architecture continues to dictate where modern LPGA players can use all that technology.
The championship course stretches to 6,823 yards and contains 54 bunkers, according to Columbia Edgewater. Tournament setups play shorter, including the LPGA configuration used for the Portland Classic. Length, though, has never represented the course’s strongest defense. Angles do.
That was the problem sitting underneath Thitikul’s early birdie streak. She had enough power to shorten Columbia Edgewater, but power only became useful when she could place the ball where the next shot opened up. The mature trees lining the property turn a drive several yards off line into something much more costly than a slightly longer approach.
Consider the ninth. Columbia Edgewater’s own hole guide advises players toward the left side of the fairway. A large bunker protects the right, while water and another bunker complicate the approach into the green. A tee shot can find short grass and still leave the player wishing she had moved it several yards across the hole.
Thitikul reached No. 9 six under for her round after that blistering start. Then she made bogey. Suddenly the lesson became visible.
Where a good drive can still go wrong
Golf’s standard driving statistics make the game sound wonderfully simple: fairway hit or fairway missed. Columbia Edgewater refuses to cooperate with that definition.
Here, players need the correct portion of the fairway. The difference between the left center and right center can change whether a golfer sees the entire green or has to work around a bunker, tree line or awkward entry angle. A drive can look perfect from behind the tee. The approach exposes the truth.
That dynamic runs through Macan’s design. At the 13th, Columbia Edgewater uses a large oak as an aiming reference and advises players to work inside the fairway bunker to preserve the cleanest approach. The 16th adds a nastier version of the same problem, with out of bounds stretching along the left side and an uneven fairway capable of leaving uncomfortable long-iron approaches.
These are not holes where raw distance becomes irrelevant. Distance still offers a massive advantage. A player carrying the ball farther gets shorter clubs into greens, higher trajectories and more control around tucked flags. But distance only matters if you have an angle.
Thitikul’s Sunday round kept returning to that equation. Her opening surge came from attacking positions she could use. When the ninth disrupted the rhythm, she needed to decide whether to back away from the aggression or trust it again. The answer arrived one hole later.
The hole that changed Sunday
The par-5 10th measured 512 yards in the 2026 Portland Classic setup and served as the LPGA’s designated Aon Risk Reward Challenge hole. The designation made sense because No. 10 asks a player to decide how much ambition her tee shot should create.
Thitikul arrived there immediately after her bogey at nine. According to the final-round report, her drive finished in the left rough rather than the ideal portion of the fairway. The mistake could have forced caution.
Instead, she produced the shot that changed the feel of the round. Thitikul reached the green with her second and made eagle.
Bogey. Eagle. Within minutes, momentum flipped again.
That sequence says more about driving position at the Portland Classic than a table of fairways-hit percentages ever could. Thitikul did not execute the perfect tee shot, but she missed in a place that still gave her a path forward. Her power mattered because she retained enough angle and enough control to attack from an imperfect lie.
That is championship golf. The goal is not to hit eighteen perfect drives. Nobody does that. The goal is to make sure the imperfect ones do not trap you into another mistake.
When the leaderboard started closing in
By then, Thitikul could not simply play Columbia Edgewater. She also had to play the leaderboard.
Wannasaen was charging. The 2023 champion eventually shot a nine-under 63, one better than Thitikul’s own spectacular round. Yubol stayed in the fight with a 67. Both reached 21-under, while Thitikul needed every bit of 22-under to escape with the trophy.
That pressure changes how a tee box feels. A fairway that looked wide on Thursday begins shrinking on Sunday afternoon. One bunker suddenly seems enormous. A tree that barely registered during the opening round becomes the obstacle a player cannot stop seeing.
That is where Columbia Edgewater can bait contenders into bad decisions. When birdies start stacking up around them, players naturally want another ten yards. They tighten the target. They swing harder. One aggressive decision becomes an approach from the wrong side, then a recovery shot, then a par that feels like a bogey because somebody else just moved another stroke under.
Thitikul experienced the tension directly. After answering her ninth-hole bogey with eagle at 10, she later dropped another shot at the par-5 12th. Again, the chase could have become frantic. Instead, she kept producing chances.
Why those low scores can fool you
Low winning scores can make Columbia Edgewater look vulnerable. The recent results are startling. According to LPGA scoring records, Wannasaen won at 26-under in 2023, Akie Iwai reached 24-under in 2025, and Thitikul won at 22-under in 2026.
Those numbers do not prove that the course lacks teeth. They show what elite players can do once they solve it.
Columbia Edgewater does not usually beat contenders into submission with endless forced carries or punishing length. It presents opportunities, then makes players decide whether they have earned the right to attack them. A correctly positioned drive can turn a demanding approach into a wedge at the flag. Move the same ball across the fairway and the bunker that barely mattered from the tee suddenly owns the player’s attention.
Thitikul’s final round embodied that balance. She was never playing cautiously. Six birdies in the opening seven holes eliminated that possibility, and her eagle at 10 reinforced it. Yet her aggression had a shape.
She kept trying to create the next useful angle rather than simply chase maximum distance.
One last opening
By the closing stretch, the leaderboard had tightened around her. Wannasaen and Yubol were at 21-under. Thitikul needed another birdie, and Columbia Edgewater had reached the part of the course where every decision suddenly carried the weight of the trophy.
She found that birdie at No. 17. Then came the final tee.
At that point, driving position becomes less theoretical. Nobody standing over the ball cares about architecture history or statistical categories. The player sees the corridor, knows the miss she cannot afford and tries to make one committed swing.
Thitikul finished the job. Her 64 pushed her to 22-under, good enough for a one-shot victory. Schubert, one of the players she had trailed entering Sunday, finished four shots farther back at 17-under.
The leaderboard tells us Thitikul made more birdies when she needed them. Columbia Edgewater explains why she kept getting the chance.
What Columbia Edgewater keeps asking
A century after Macan finished the course, modern equipment has changed nearly everything about how elite golfers attack it. Players launch drives farther. They hit shorter clubs into greens. Par 5s that once required three shots can become eagle opportunities.
Still, Columbia Edgewater keeps asking the same old question: where do you want the next shot from?
The ninth pushes players toward a preferred side. The 13th uses its oak and bunker to frame the proper line. The 16th waits late in the round with out of bounds close enough to tighten any contender’s grip.
Then there is the 10th, where Thitikul walked off a bogey, found the left rough and responded with an eagle that helped transform her Sunday. Those moments explain why driving position at the Portland Classic matters far beyond driving accuracy.
The champion must attack. Recent history leaves little alternative when winning scores keep reaching the low 20s under par. But attacking and swinging recklessly are different sports.
Thitikul showed the distinction in 2026. She chased birdies without abandoning the architecture in front of her. When a drive missed its intended window, she recovered. When an angle opened, she went after it. When the leaderboard demanded one final push, she found another birdie.
That is the hidden geometry of Columbia Edgewater. Finding the fairway helps.
Finding the right piece of it can win the Portland Classic.
Read Also: Approach Accuracy Is the Hidden Key to Winning the Portland Classic
FAQs
Why does driving position matter at Columbia Edgewater?
Columbia Edgewater rewards players who find the right side of the fairway. Better angles make attacking its greens and avoiding bunkers much easier.
Who won the 2026 Portland Classic?
Jeeno Thitikul won at 22-under after shooting a final-round 64. She beat Arpichaya Yubol and Chanettee Wannasaen by one stroke.
Who designed Columbia Edgewater Country Club?
A.V. Macan designed the course. Columbia Edgewater opened in 1925 and remains known for strategic angles, mature trees and demanding positioning.
What is the risk-reward hole at the Portland Classic?
The par-5 10th served as the 2026 Aon Risk Reward Challenge hole. The LPGA listed it at 512 yards.
What did Jeeno Thitikul shoot in the final round?
Thitikul shot an eight-under 64 in the final round. She finished the tournament at 22-under to win by one stroke.
Tracking stats and settling debates. If there is a scoreboard, I am watching it.
