Usually in golf, cut watches are reserved for the top ranked players in the world. Fans want to see their favorite players and biggest stars battle it out on the weekend and make a run. At The Standard Portland Classic on Friday, something a bit different happened.
Surrounding the green on the ninth hole Friday was about as large of a crowd as could fit in the very cramped space watching a group that included the No. 15 ranked player in the world and a two-time major champion on a hot streak. But all eyes were on a player who hasn’t made an LPGA Tour start since 2022. That’s because it was Juli Inkster, the 31-time LPGA Tour winner with seven major titles to her name, undisputedly one of the greatest American golfers ever. She was trying to become the oldest player to ever make an LPGA Tour cut at 65-years-old.
Inkster was smooth sailing for the first 27 holes. She had made just two bogeys up until that point and was well within the cut line at -3 with just nine holes to play. The cut had been moving up, but still looked like it was going to be even par. A couple stumbles on her 12th and 13th hole made it nerve-wracking for the large gallery following her group.
On her last hole, Juli pulled her approach shot left, leaving a nervy chip from what looked to be a thick lie in the rough. She did have one more magic trick up her sleeve. Inkster put her shot to mere inches from the hole and tapped in for a score of -1 through 36 holes of play. The entire crowd felt like they just witnessed history.
Alas, as the day went on, the cut was closer and closer to reaching the -1 number. Finally, late in the day, it moved and stayed where it was. Inkster had missed the cut by one stroke.
Still, Inkster’s impact on the 2025 Portland Classic can’t be measured just off her score. One of the LPGA Tour’s most historic events was dealing with a depleted field once again, with none of the top six players in the world playing, and only two of the top 10. As Inkster left the green on her final hole, with her fate still hanging in the balance, fans were thanking her for coming to their local event.
For a couple of days in Portland, Inkster was one of the biggest stars on the LPGA Tour again.
