The casinos of Atlantic City stand just beyond the bay, the skyline in full view as players gamble against the prevailing winds of the Bay Course’s front nine.
LPGA Rules Official Donna Mummert says players can expect “firm and fast conditions,” this week at the ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer at the Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club in Galloway, New Jersey.
With the Donald Ross design sitting along Reeds Bay, the wind will play a factor particularly on the front nine of the Bay Course. Despite the beautiful views of Atlantic City, the exposed area will bring the prevailing winds into play.
In addition to wind, rough will present another challenge this week. Mummert says players will see rough at three inches in height, adding there are “a lot of areas where there is tall fescue along bunker faces and along some mounds of greens and beyond the first cut of rough.”
Greens will be running at 11 ½ on the simpmeter with the course playing to a total of 6,177 yards for the week at a Par 71, which Mummert says is “setting up to present difficult challenges” for players this week in New Jersey.
A two-time winner of this event, Stacy Lewis defends her title this week after winning last year’s tournament with a total of 16-under par, one shy of Annika Sorenstam’s tournament scoring record, which she shot in 1998 and 2005.