The ShopRite LPGA Classic Returns to Atlantic City

The ShopRite LPGA Classic will return to southern New Jersey after a three-year absence. The event is scheduled for June 14th - 20th, 2010, at Seaview Resort's historic Bay Course in Galloway Township. The 54-hole official event will offer a $1.5M purse and will be televised on the Golf Channel.

The ShopRite Classic and the LPGA have a five-year contract, but each side could opt out during that stretch, said Tim Erensen of Atlantic City Golf, LLC, and the tournament's executive director. The tournament will compete against the U.S. Men’s Open at Pebble Beach, Calif., in 2010. However, the ShopRite Classic will move up to the weekend after Memorial Day beginning in 2011.

“The event did not leave because it wasn’t successful,” Erensen said. “We hope to have as long and as successful a run as the previous (management) group.” Erensen, 36, has been involved with the LPGA and professional golf since the mid-1990s. He was an executive with Octagon Worldwide Inc., a sports management company that ran several LPGA events, including the Sybase Classic presented by ShopRite, which was held in May at Upper Montclair Country Club the last two years. Karen Meleta, spokesperson for ShopRite, said Wakefern jumped at the chance to have the tournament back in the Atlantic City-area. “We never wanted to leave Atlantic City,” she said. “Circumstances made that happen. When were presented with an opportunity to return, we couldn’t resist. We’re coming back home.”

Originally known as the Atlantic City Classic, the tournament began in 1986 and was played at several courses near Atlantic City with the first two and last nine years played at Seaview. The tournament was officially changed to the ShopRite LPGA Classic in 1992 when Wakefern Food Corporation took over as title sponsor. The event was cancelled in 2007 when the LPGA decided to host a different event on the date traditionally reserved for the ShopRite LPGA Classic. Organizers of the local event and the LPGA could not come up with another date that worked for both.

The event was a popular spectator event with local golfers, an economic boon to the area and a huge source of donations for local charities. Since the 1980s, ShopRite has donated more than $22 million to charities by sponsoring LPGA events.

Story reported by http://pressofatlanticcity.com/.