The ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer is on deck this week for the LPGA Tour’s best players, and with a pretty strong field competing this year at the Bay Course at Seaview, there are plenty of athletes who could be contending for the title come Sunday afternoon. Eleven of the top 25 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings are teeing it up, and they are joined by six of this season’s 13 total winners and six past champions of the ShopRite LPGA Classic, an impressive slate of talent that should produce plenty of drama over the course of this 54-hole event. Here are three athletes to keep an eye on in Galloway, N.J., as they could wind up hoisting the trophy in the Garden State.

Nelly Korda

Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda is the favorite in the field at the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer, having tied for second just last week at the U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills. Her T2 performance was Korda’s third top-two result in a major championship over the last two seasons, as she won the 2024 Chevron Championship and then tied for second at the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews in August. The runner-up showing was her fourth T7 or better finish of the 2025 season, as she has also come in second at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, tied for seventh at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands and tied for fifth at the Mizuho Americas Open in her eight total starts this year on the LPGA Tour.

This is Korda’s third time teeing it up at Seaview’s Bay Course, and in her two previous starts in the ShopRite LPGA Classic, she missed the cut in 2017 and finished solo fifth in 2020, the latter edition of which was contested over 72 holes. Her record in other LPGA Tour events held in the Garden State is also pretty good, as Korda tied for seventh in the 2024 edition of the Founders Cup that was held at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton and tied for 19th when the event was played at Mountain Ridge Country Club in West Caldwell, N.J.

Looking at KPMG Performance Insights data, Korda leads the LPGA Tour in strokes gained total (+2.45) and strokes gained off the tee (+1.03), also ranking ninth in strokes gained tee to green (+1.59) and 15th in strokes gained putting (+0.86). She has made steady improvements in strokes gained approach over the last three seasons as well, going from 58th in the metric in 2023 to 22nd in 2024 and is currently sitting at 11th so far in 2025. Korda is additionally ranked first in scoring average (69.14), first in birdie percentage (27.98) and is tied for third in rounds in the 60s (17) on the LPGA Tour this season.

Jin Young Ko

Jin Young Ko has a propensity for success when it comes to New Jersey golf, having won two of her 15 LPGA Tour titles in the Garden State. Ko captured the Founders Cup title in 2021 when the tournament had first moved to New Jersey and was contested at Mountain Ridge Country Club in West Caldwell. She then won the event again in 2023 at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, N.J., after beating Minjee Lee in a playoff, what is the former Rolex Rankings No. 1’s most recent victory on the LPGA Tour. This is the major champion’s fifth appearance in the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer, and she has never missed the cut in her four previous starts, earning a career-best finish of T2 at Seaview’s Bay Course back in 2021.

This week marks Ko’s 10th tournament of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and so far this year, the 29-year-old has only missed one cut at the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass and collected four T7 or better results. The best of those four finishes is a solo second that she posted at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands at Bradenton Country Club and the most notable is the tie for sixth that Ko recorded at The Chevron Championship in April.

Ko is ranked inside the top 25 in three strokes gained categories, including strokes gained total (7, +1.58), strokes gained approach (12, +0.87) and strokes gained tee to green (22, +0.99), and she leads the Tour in proximity to the hole from 125 to 150 yards (21 feet), according to KPMG Performance Insights data. She additionally ranks fifth in both greens hit from the rough percentage (64.21 percent) and scoring average (69.93) and is tied for third in bogey-free rounds (6).

Albane Valenzuela

Switzerland native Albane Valenzuela is making her sixth career start in the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer and is a dark horse to watch out for this week in Galloway, N.J. In her last three appearances in this tournament, the 27-year-old has recorded three consecutive top-10 finishes – tying for fourth in 2022, tying for sixth in 2023 and tying for ninth in 2024 at the Bay Course at Seaview. She has posted six scores in the 60s in her last nine rounds in this event and hasn’t shot over par since carding a 76 on day one of the 2021 ShopRite LPGA Classic.

This is Valenzuela’s 12th start of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and in her 11 events before teeing it up in the Garden State, she has only found the top 20 twice, doing so at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands (T13) and the Honda LPGA Thailand (T20) that were both held in February. According to data provided by KPMG Performance Insights, Valenzuela is only ranked inside the top 20 of one major strokes gained category, currently sitting at 17th in strokes gained approach (+0.75), and she is picking up shots in strokes gained total (65, +0.19), strokes gained tee to green (42, +0.58) and strokes gained around the green (42 +0.18).

Players to Watch: 2025 ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer

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