The 2026 NextNW Open, or What Happens When Everyone Ignores the Weather App

The NextNW Open started with a bit of drama, hours before tee times. The weather alert came in the night before. Wind, rain, the kind of forecast that makes an event organizer lose sleep. Oregon, as Oregon does, cleared its throat and moved the storm along before the first shotgun start.

What we got instead was light sprinkles, a few gusts and enough sunshine by the afternoon that people were shedding their jackets. And what we got, more to the point,was nearly 100 people at Rose City Golf Course on a Friday in September, when every one of them had a full inbox.

This industry scattered five years ago and mostly never came back. Most of us work from a spare room. Many of our colleagues are faces in a grid. The casual professional friendship, the one that used to form because you happened to be at the same conference or the same bar or the same long lunch, does not form by accident any more. That's why the NextNW Open is so important.

An event like this isn't really about golf. It is a fix for what Covid broke. Four people a team hit the course for 4+ hours with no agenda but touching some grass and enjoying great conversation. Whether on a golf course or at a happy hour, these professional friendships have never been more important and we are declaring - officially - that in-person is back!

Check-in opened at 8:30 with breakfast burritos and a Bloody Mary bar, and yes, the bar was busy before some people had finished their coffee. Out on the course there was beer in the carts, mimosas at one hole, coffee at another, and a few volunteers whose entire job was to be delighted to see you. One sponsor filmed golf swings and promised to send everyone their numbers, which is either a gift or a threat depending on your skill level.

Lincoln brought a Navigator out for test drives and donated $50 for every qualifying one to the Portland Opera, our nonprofit partner for 2026. The car had a rejuvenation mode that turns the cabin into a small meditation chamber, and more than one person emerged looking well rested and refreshed. The Back 9 Bash ran from the afternoon into the evening with a DJ, tasty food, a raffle and a henna artist, because it wouldn'd be Portland without tattoos.

Where the money goes

This is one of the largest fundraisers NextNW runs, and the money is not abstract. It covers administrative costs, which is the foundation for everything we do. It funds programming: the workshops, the panels, the awards, the events.

If you golfed, bought a mulligan, entered a contest or just came for the party, you paid for some of that. Thank you.

The people and companies who made it possible

Our title sponsor, the Portland Business Journal, made the day possible. StackAdapt ran the Breakfast Bar. Nielsen kept the clubhouse coffee coming. Mary's Mixers and Abiqua Spirit Distillery, pouring their Silverton Ultra Premium Vodka, took care of the Bloody Mary bar. Basis hosted the beverages at the Bash and Kinsta brought the coffee on the course and the henna artist afterwards. Billups poured the mimosas. Backwoods Brewing kept the carts stocked. Digilant, 1338Tryon, Portland Opera and Left Hand Agency filled the swag bags. OMPA sponsored a hole, TOC Transformative Optics filmed the swings, MOGL handed out koozies, and Image Media made all the signage that kept us all on track.

Erik Werlin of Brite Point Media, Michael Koach and our in-kind social agency MDZN Studio spent the day pointing cameras at people having a good time. Coast, Billups, Portland Opera and Jones Golf donated the raffle prizes. fjorge and Amazon backed us too.

And our board and volunteers, who set up in the wee hours of the morning, worked the registration desk in matching green visors... adorbs.

Next year

The 2027 NextNW Open will be back. If your company wants a hole, a bar, a breakfast or a fleet of test drives next September, get in touch. If you just want to come and get put in a cart with three strangers, we'll be ready for you!

Bring a jacket. Ignore the forecast.