Ryan Brennecke / The BulletinColleen Moulton taps in her putt on the 9th hole as Kathy Nichols, left, and Judy Knight watch while playing in the second round of the Pacific Amateur Golf Classic at Lost Tracks Golf Club on Tuesday.

Diane Greenwood just felt comfortable after the second round of the Pacific Amateur Golf Classic.

A 47-year-old from Eugene, Greenwood seemed genuinely happy to be among a like group of women at Lost Tracks Golf Club in southeast Bend.

“A lot of these women are better than a lot of these men,” said Greenwood on an overcast Tuesday at Lost Tracks. “You don’t have to act. You can just let your golf ball to the talking. We don’t feel threatened, because we’re not even playing with them (men).”

The 46 women represent a small minority of the more than 400 golfers in the field at this year’s Pac Am. In fact, just two of the 18 flights in the tournament are specifically for women.

Yet many of the women in this year’s field are returnees.

What keeps them coming back?

Well, it turns out many of the same draws for men attract women to the 18-year-old tournament, including the chance to meet new people while competing in a net tournament on some of the best golf courses Central Oregon has to offer.

“You probably don’t see anybody with a frown on their face, even though we scored poorly,” said Linda Kueny, a 63-year-old from Norwalk, California, playing in her third Pac Am.

The Pac Am is but one tournament for Dorothy Walker, a 67-year-old from Lakewood, Colorado.

Playing in the Pac Am for her seventh time, Walker annually travels with her husband to similar tournaments in South Carolina, Southern California, Nevada and even Alaska.

For her, the Pac Am is just another opportunity to socialize in a golf setting.

“I love to play golf,” said Walker, who is playing despite a fractured right heel that has her in a cast for the tournament. “I am retired and I work on a golf course, and it’s more fun to actually meet people.”

But in a male-dominated sport that still has plenty of men-only golf clubs, women do not always feel welcome on the links.

To that point, the Central Oregon Visitors Association, which organizes the Pac Am, does do a good job of making women feel as important as the men in the tournament, Kueny said.

“The people that run this tournament treat us all equally,” said Kueny, who works for the Southern California Golf Association and travels with nearly a dozen women for the Pac Am. “When you come in from the get-go, it’s all about making you feel welcome and excited about playing.”

If there is a criticism that many of the women in the field share it is that not enough women play in the Pac-Am.

Like the tournament as a whole, which has slipped from roughly 800 golfers in 2007 and 2008, the number of women in the Pac Am has decreased significantly.

That creates relatively small flights of golfers, which can hurt competitive balance.

The difference between the lowest and highest handicap in a flight is significant, said Valerie Robbins, a 50-year-old from San Diego playing in her sixth Pac Am.

Drawn to the area because of the beauty of the courses, she said, Robbins noted that with such disparity in handicaps comes a built-in inequity.

“It’s hard to walk to the tee and know that you are giving them 14 strokes,” said Robbins, whose handicap — an index of about 7 — is among the lowest for women in this year’s Pac Am. “And yes, handicaps are supposed to make it all even. But it really doesn’t.”

That, though, is a numbers game tournament organizers can do little about.

Besides, smaller flights also have some advantages, Greenwood observed. In fact, for those women who continue to play, the smaller flights may offer a reason to keep coming back.

“This is the funnest year to me out of all seven,” Greenwood said. “It just feels really family-ish this year, maybe because it is smaller. The first year I played it was 700-something people.

“The food has been good and the weather has been great.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7868, zhall@bendbulletin.com.