ShopRite LPGA Classic, the annual LPGA Tour event at the Jersey Shore, is postponed for two months

The ShopRite LPGA Classic has been postponed and rescheduled for the weekend of July 31-Aug. 2 at the Jersey Shore, leading to some hope by tournament executive director Tim Erensen that the extra time will see the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 54-hole tournament had been scheduled May 29-31 at Seaview Resort in Galloway, N.J. It was one of five events that were postponed Friday by the LPGA, which cited the “continued impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the health and travel restrictions that are currently in place around the globe.”

The ShopRite was one of four events that were rescheduled. Erensen, managing partner of Eiger Marketing Group that owns and operates the tournament, said it was a matter of getting all the partners on board and settling on a date agreeable to all.

The new date would have been the first weekend of golf competition at the postponed Tokyo Olympics,

“The first weekend in August is a great spot for us,” Erensen said. “It works for Wakefern [ShopRite’s parent company], it works for Seaview, it works for our pro-am courses and the Borgata [host of the pro-am]. It took a lot of work from all of our partners to make it all work because it’s a big commitment from a lot of different people. So we’re happy to be able to at least hope that we have a chance to fight another day.”

However, given the uncertainty of when the pandemic will start to ease and eventually disappear, Erensen said the tournament has an “internal deadline” of June 1 to make a decision on whether to go ahead with preparations.

“We are fully committed to the event,” he said. “We’re moving ahead like the event is going to happen that first weekend in August, but we do kind of have a reconvene date of June 1 to just kind of see where the world is, and how things have progressed over the next 60 days or so. Hopefully, that puts us in a great position to be able to execute another great event.”

The tournament made its debut as the Atlantic City Classic in 1986 and was contested every year through 2006, with ShopRite coming on board in 1992 as title sponsor. After a three-year hiatus, the event returned to the schedule in 2010 and has enjoyed a successful 10-year run. Since ShopRite became title sponsor, about $35 million has been raised for local charities.

The event also is notable for having one of the largest pro-am fields in the LPGA, taking up four courses and requiring officials to bring in tour professionals who are not in the tournament field.