Featured Groups: ShopRite LPGA Classic, Acer | LPGA

It’s the 35th running of the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer in Galloway, NJ at the Seaview, Dolce Hotel, and the field features seven past champions and four of the top 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking. Tee times begin at 7:30 a.m. Friday for this 54-hole event, and here are a few groups to watch during the first and second rounds.

Friday 8.41 – Atthaya Thitikul, Marina Alex, Aditi Ashok

It seems strange that the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer is the 12th event of the 2023 LPGA Tour season and we have yet to see Atthaya Thitikul lift the trophy. The 2022 rookie won twice in her first season on the LPGA Tour and this year has recorded six top-10 finishes in eight starts, including a solo third at the Honda LPGA Thailand, T5 in Clifton, NJ. Cognizant Founders Cup and T10 at last week’s Mizuho Americas Open in Jersey City. Based on the Garden State’s recent history, he is certainly a player to keep an eye on in Seaview.

Marina Alex made the comeback of the year last week at Liberty National Golf Club. The New Jersey native opened the week with an 8-over 80 to finish at the bottom of the leaderboard in a tie for 115th. Never one to give up, Alex fired an impressive 8-under 64 on Friday to even things up and make an easy cut that eventually fell in the 2-under zone. He would finish T39, carding rounds of 72 and 73 over the weekend, and is looking forward to another opportunity to play in front of his hometown crowd this week in Jersey.

Women’s European Tour winner Aditi Ashok has arguably been one of the hottest players on Tour in recent weeks and is more than deserving of the win. Despite missing her first three cuts of the season, Ashok has found something of late, finishing in the top five in three of her last four LPGA Tour starts, including a T2 at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro at Ashok. lost to Hannah Green in the playoffs. She has already won the Magical Kenya Ladies Open on the Ladies European Tour this year and you can be sure she will be looking to add to her trophy haul on the LPGA Tour.

Friday at 8:52 – Brooke Henderson, Georgia Hall, Anna Nordqvist

Defending champion Brooke Henderson looks to successfully defend her title for the third time in her LPGA Tour career this week in Galloway, NJ, and hopes to turn her momentum around with four major championships this summer. He won the first event of the 2023 season, the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, but has stalled recently, missing two cuts and picking up just one top-15 finish, a T11 at the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakale. With Henderson’s title defense on deck in July at the Amundi Evian Championship, he needs his game up to speed, and Seaview could provide the perfect venue to do so.

Like Ashok, Georgia Hall looks more than deserving of her third career LPGA Tour win after a stellar start to the 2023 season. She has recorded two consecutive runner-up finishes at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain and the DIO Implant LA Open, and has three additional top 10 finishes, including a T10 at the Cognizant Founders Cup in May. Hall ranks second in under par this season with 25 and is fifth in scoring average (69.72), so he’s a player to keep an eye on because consistency tends to pay off.

Rounding out the trio of major champions is Anna Nordqvist, who is looking to move her LPGA Tour wins into double figures in an event she has won twice before. Nordqvist is the only back-to-back champion of the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer, winning the event in 2015 and 2016 with 54 holes of 8-under and 17-under. He never shot in the 70s in those two years and has a top-five finish in addition to his two wins, the most recent of which was a solo fourth in 2019.

Friday at 13:52 – Ayaka Furue, Matilda Castren, Paula Creamer

Ayaka Furue came oh-so-close once again at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play presented by MGM Rewards a few weeks ago, finishing second to Pajaree Anannarukarni after losing in the championship match for the second year in a row. But the 23-year-old quickly put the defeat out of his mind and recorded his fifth top-five finish of the season last week at the Mizuho Americas Open, shooting rounds of 69-74-69-69 to reach a T4 spot at Liberty National Golf Club. . Furue became Rolex’s first winner as a rookie at last year’s Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open and continues to chase an elusive second win.

LPGA Tour winner Matilda Castren has had a bit of a rough go this season, missing three cuts in 10 starts this season and managing just one top-25 finish, a T21 at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. This is her third appearance in the ShopRite LPGA Classic, and in her previous two starts in 2020 and 2021, she finished T58 and T27.

In her first full season since becoming #LPGAMom to her daughter Hilton, Paula Creamer returns to a place that suits her game and where she’s nearly won before. Competing as a sponsor invitational in 2004, Creamer finished 10-under in T2, just one stroke behind champion Cristie Kerr, and has since picked up five additional top-10 finishes at Seaview. It’s been a tough year for Creamer with one withdrawal and four missed surgeries, but the Pink Panther is happy to return to an event that holds so many fond memories and tee it up on a golf course he knows like the back of his hand. hand.

Complete list of pairings