Jennifer Kupcho Sinks Dramatic Putt on Home Hole to Win ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer; Marks Fourth Career LPGA Win and First Since 2022
By Doug Milne
GALLOWAY, N.J. - Seeking a first top-10 finish in her 11th start of the season, American Jennifer Kupcho took whatever measures she felt necessary to stay relaxed and achieve the feat at the ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer.
“Halfway through the round, we were trying to figure out the difference between an otter and a beaver, so like random stuff like that to keep my mind off it and just have fun out there,” she laughed of the conversation with caddie, Josh Udelhofen.
The diverting tactic not only helped calm her nerves in the process, and perhaps bring a few laughs along the way, but it helped result in something far more memorable than just a ho-hum top-10 finish.
On the heels of a missed cut at last week’s U.S. Women’s Open, the 28-year-old followed opening rounds of 68-64 with a 5-under 66 in Sunday’s final round, capped off by a dramatic 8-foot birdie at the final hole to claim her fourth career LPGA win. At 15-under 198, the American player emerged victorious by a stroke over 36-hole leader, Ilhee Lee.
“I really wasn’t thinking about anybody else,” Kupcho said. “I had my mind set on 14-under. Obviously, I did a little better, but I just stayed in my zone the whole time. This feels really nice.”
Kupcho, who began the final round trailing Lee by a stroke at 10-under 132, offset two bogeys with seven birdies to get in with the 66 Sunday. Whether or not she’d ever stand in the winner’s circle again, though, was something of concern to her.
“Early this season, I definitely thought, like, ‘Am I even good stuff like that to be out here and compete again’,” she said. “But I just continued to have conversations with people on my team; my husband, my family, and continued practicing, working. I hoped it would eventually come.”
Kupcho’s fourth LPGA crown comes three years removed from 2022, when she captured each of her first three titles; The Chevron Championship, Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give and the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational. With a lot of lackluster results by her standards after 2022, questions – doubts, even – began creeping into her psyche.
“I essentially went to them like, ‘I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how to swing a golf club. I have no idea how to do this anymore’,” she admitted. “I felt like I had completely lost what I was doing. That’s basically what I went to them with. So, it was essentially them just calming me down and bringing back me to earth. I was being a bit crazy. I just really needed to dumb it down to the fundamentals, basically.”
With her victory, Kupcho claims the third victory by a player from the United States on the LPGA Tour in 2025, joining Yealimi Noh (Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands) and Angel Yin (Honda LPGA Thailand). She also becomes the 16th different player from the United States to win the ShopRite LPGA Classic and first since Lexi Thompson in 2019.
Kupcho becomes the 14th different player to win on the LPGA Tour in 2025, and with the $5,717,368 winner’s draw this week, she surpasses the $5.5 million mark in official career earnings.
One can’t help but wonder if they arrived at an answer about the critters.
“Not really. I think the beaver I think is smaller,” she said. “We think that a beaver has the two front teeth that are bigger, but I feel like that also could just be a cartoon thing. I don't know. We just have to ask Google that one ourselves.”
In her 200th career LPGA start, second start of the season and first since missing the cut at last week’s U.S. Women’s Open, 18-hole co-leader and 36-hole leader, Ilhee Lee, followed rounds of 63-68 with a 3-under 68 to finish a stroke behind Kupcho at 14-under 199.
“It was so fun to watch Jennifer playing,” Lee said. “I was right next to her, and I was cheering for her because it's just golf. I mean, we all try our best. So, I was actually cheering for her. It was awesome to watch her play.”
Following bogeys on three of her first seven holes, the 36-year-old Lee rallied with six birdies, including Nos. 17 and 18 to finish runner-up.
“I had a couple of bad bounces on the first and third holes, but I was thinking, it's just golf. It's okay to play from there,” Lee said. Then, I was trying to move my lower body a little bit because I was a little bit shaky. I think it was the first time for me to start as a leader, so I was kind of nervous. But, I got through pretty quick and finished great, I think.”
Though she has been largely sidelined by a 2019 shoulder injury, Lee was in search of her second career win on the LPGA Tour and first since the 2013 Pure Silk-Bahamas Classic.
With what’s certain to go down as the most colorful nine-hole stretch of the week, Korea’s Sei Young Kim played Nos. 10-18 in par-birdie-birdie-birdie-double bogey-bogey-par-ACE-birdie. What all that amounted to was a final-round 6-under 65 and third-place finish at 12-under 201.
“It was like a rollercoaster, up and down, up and down,” Kim said of Nos. 10-18. “I was trying to keep positive thoughts. When I was standing on hole 17, I was thinking, ‘What if I made hole-in-one and birdie on the last hole’. So, yeah, it's a dream come true.”
Kim used a 56-degree wedge from 85 yards at No. 17 to record the hole in one, only to then finish her week with a birdie at the last.
“I hit the right number, and I saw the bounce once and then in,” she said. “My skin everywhere had goosebumps. I was dancing, but then no. I had one hole left. I was like, ‘keep patient, keep patient’.”
To make the 6-under 65 even more impressive, consider that she posted it after hitting just 10-of-18 greens in regulation.
Coming off three straight missed cuts before this week, Kim was in search of her 13th career win on the LPGA Tour. After joining the LPGA Tour in 2015, she earned Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year honors that season. In 2020, she claimed the Rolex Player of the Year distinction.
Japan’s Ayaka Furue followed back-to-back 5-under 66s in the first two rounds with a 1-under 70 Sunday. Furue was in search of her third career win on the LPGA and first since her major championship victory at The Amundi Evian Championship last year.
Here’s how the six past champions of the ShopRite LPGA Classic fared the week: Brooke Henderson/2022 (71-67-68/-7/T20), Ashleigh Buhai/2023 (67-72-70/-4/T38), Stacy Lewis/2012, 2014 (69-71-73/E/T63), Brittany Lincicome/2011 (69-72/MC), Linnea Strom/2024 (72-75/MC) and Annie Park/2018 (71-71/MC).
The ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer featured 144 of the world’s best female professional golfers vying for a share of the $1.75 million tournament purse. In what was its 31st year under ShopRite’s title sponsorship, the event was contested on the Bay Course at Seaview Hotel and Golf Club in Galloway, N.J.
