LPGA ShopRite players stayed at historic Seaview, saved thousands of dollars, and even better perks are coming

GALLOWAY, N.J. — The Saturday evening before Jennifer Kupcho collected her first win in three years, she had a cozy, early dinner with her husband, Jay Monahan. They ordered from Bonefish Grill and ate in their hotel room — not an unusual occurrence, but one made much simpler thanks to ShopRite, the title sponsor for the LPGA event at Seaview Golf Club outside Atlantic City.

Monahan caddies for Allisen Corpuz, who won the 2023 Women’s U.S. Open, so he was at the hotel Saturday night, even though Corpuz missed the cut. Monahan and Kupcho had dinner Saturday and breakfast Sunday before Monahan (who happens to share a name with the PGA Tour commissioner) flew to collect their car from Chicago, where they’d parked it after the U.S. Women’s Open in Wisconsin, to drive it back to their home in Iowa. He couldn’t be there for her win, but they had some quality time beforehand. For touring golfers, every moment spent with family is precious, and staying on-site, for free, is a huge perk.

ShopRite bought out virtually all of the hotel rooms at the Seaview resort for most of the week and made them available to every woman in the 144-player field, tournament officials said. More than 120 of them, including Kupcho, took advantage of the opportunity. Officials did not provide a precise amount, but by crunching the numbers, a reasonable sum would be between $250,000 and $300,000.

For many players, it was priceless. Count Kupcho among them.

Instead of commuting through Jersey Shore traffic to Atlantic City, to a lesser property closer to the course, or perhaps to a host family’s home, Kupcho, after a long, hot, buggy, rain-delayed round, simply walked across Route 9, got on an elevator, showered, ordered dinner, went to bed, got up Sunday, and shot a 5-under 66 for a one-shot win.

Staying a pitching wedge away from the first tee, with the practice green right outside the front door, might not have pushed Kupcho back into the winner’s circle, but it certainly didn’t hurt. For instance, after her early tee time in the first round Friday, when she shot 3-under, she took a break in the hotel and then practiced in the afternoon, which would have been less likely if she’d had to drive back to Atlantic City. She went 7-under, 5-under, win.

“It’s really great to be able to stay on property — just to be able to walk out and go to the putting green if you want to late in the afternoon after you played a morning round,” Kupcho said. “Staying 20, 30 minutes away definitely racks up the time and, really, [decreases] the desire to go out and do a small, 30-minute session.”

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ShopRite is the latest of 14 tournaments to offer accommodations to its players, according to the LPGA Tour, but is one of just a handful that can put the players up at the golf course, which eliminates the need for transportation. That can be a savings of $2,000 or more, significant financial relief for many players.

Don’t be fooled by the $1.75 million purse. All but the top-tier players need all the help they can get.

With the $262,500 winner’s share that Kupcho won Sunday, she now has won $5.7 million on the LPGA Tour, with four wins, including a major, as well as 23 top-10 finishes. She hasn’t been outside the top 75 in the Rolex world rankings since her 11th professional tournament, in 2019. So, yes, Kupcho could afford the expense of a room and a rental car (unlike the men, the women seldom have access to tournament-provided courtesy cars), but most of her peers can really use the break.

It’s not a three-day stay. Most players arrived on-site on Tuesday, or Wednesday at the latest. Only 68 players made the Saturday cut of the three-day event, which means 76 players made no money at all. The LPGA doesn’t pay like the PGA Tour: Yue Ren finished 68th at the ShopRite and took home $3,865, or about 20% of what the last-place finishers at the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open won Sunday.

If she paid for her own accommodations and had to rent a car, Ren might have taken home less than $2,000. She has made $10,200 on the tour this season.

Like Ren, who is from China, Alexandra Försterling is from overseas, and flights from Germany aren’t cheap. Like Ren, she joined the LPGA Tour in 2024 and appreciates every bit of financial assistance.

“I actually got a hotel room in a different hotel on really short notice, which was $1,500 so, yeah, it’s wonderful to be here,” said Forsterling, whose $8,829 purse for tying at 38th was the first money she’s made on tour this year. “For us that aren’t in the top 30, it’s really helpful to be able to get free accommodation — especially being from overseas.”

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The tour and its tournaments help in other ways, too. For instance, the Black Desert Championship presented by Greater Zion was played in southwestern Utah right after the Chevron Championship, a major that this year was played outside of Houston in late April. The Black Desert Resort and SkyWest Airlines provided a charter flight for participants to cover the nearly 1,400 miles between the sites. That was huge; some women drive from tournament to tournament. The resort also covered lodging and meals.

The LPGA has offered free daycare at tournaments in the U.S. and Canada since 1993, but the facility isn’t always close to the course, and drop-offs can be inconvenient and time-consuming.

Last week, the drop-off at the ShopRite was about 500 yards from the first tee, just to the right of the check-in desk. That’s why, after making the cut Saturday, semiretired star Stacy Lewis — a two-time Player of the Year who has earned almost $15 million on the LPGA Tour, ranking 12th in history — made the cut in the morning, then walked across the street, changed into yoga pants, and hung out in the hotel in the afternoon with her adorable daughter Chesnee, who is 6.

She wasn’t the biggest name at the event. Not by a long shot. Nelly Korda, the best American golfer since Nancy Lopez, spent her 100th week as the world No. 1 playing the buggy, rainy Bay Course at Seaview. She finished at 8-under, tied for 15th, won $23,544, and stayed on-site.

She tied with Patty Tavatanakit, who had experienced the entire gamut of lodging experiences at the ShopRite: host family, run-down discount hotel chain, and historic resort.

“This is my third time here. I stayed in a house once, and then I stayed, like, at a hotel, like, closer to the highway,” she said, wrinkling her nose at the memory. “Yeah, this has been the best so far.”

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It isn’t really a fair comparison: A 111-year-old seaside hostelry that hosted the 1942 PGA Championship, hosted two presidents, hosted Grace Kelly’s 16th birthday party, and, for 10 days during their 1989 “Steel Wheels” tour, hosted Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones.

Even the fancy casino hotel towers across the bay can’t compete with that.

“Walking around the place, like, it’s so cool, being able to walk around and see the history of the whole entire place,” said rookie Mariel Galdiano, who finished tied for 20th and made $18,886.

As a tour rookie whose head is still spinning, the most vivid image of Galdiano’s stay came when a sudden storm swept in off the bay, and less-prepared players scrambled back across the road to the hotel, where she’d forgotten her rain gear. Normally, the player might have had to buy waterproofs in the pro shop or just gotten drenched. Instead she returned to the course 10 minutes later, ready to face the weather.

There’s even more coming to the Jersey Shore.

Just after Kupcho hoisted the trophy Sunday, Mike Stigers, president of ShopRite’s overseeing entity, Wakefern Food Corp., told tournament officials of his plans to make the tournament irresistible to the best players in the world.

“So we’ll do player lounges. Maybe a lounge for the kids because we have so many kids who are here,” said tournament executive director Tim Erensen. “Our goal is to become the most family-friendly event on tour.”

For Kupcho and Monahan, it already is.

“I think it’s really important for us to stay semi-close to the golf course. It’s nice not having to get up and take him to the golf course in the morning,” she said. “That’s a really big thing for us.”

Whether it’s the cash or the convenience, when you’re trying to win a tournament, every little bit helps.