Jennifer Kupcho didn’t give a dam Sunday.
Midway through the final round of the ShopRite LPGA Classic at Seaview Golf Club, she was looking for ways to ease the tension that comes with being in contention.
As she headed to the 10th tee with caddie Josh Udelhofen, her gaze turned away from the course and toward Reeds Bay on the horizon.
“Halfway through the round, we were trying to figure out the difference between an otter and a beaver,” she told LPGA.com. “We talked about random stuff like that to keep my mind off it and just have fun out there.”
The off-beat strategy helped her turn in an impressive performance before a large crowd. Kupcho drained an 8-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to clinch a one-shot victory Ilhee Lee and earn her first LPGA tournament victory since 2022.
Once she plucked the ball out of the hole, fellow LPGA tour players rushed onto the green to douse her with water in celebration.
That group included Lee, who had entered the final round with a one-stroke lead over Kupcho.
“It was so fun to watch Jennifer playing,” Lee said. “I was actually cheering for her because it’s just golf. We’re all out there trying our best. It was awesome to watch her play.”
Kupcho shot a 5-under-par 66 Sunday to finish the 36-hole, $1.75-million event at 15-under 198.
It was an impressive turnaround after a tough start to the 2025 season which included a missed-cut at last week’s Women’s U.S. Open.
“Earlier this season, I definitely wondered, ‘Am I good enough to be out here (on tour)?’” Kupcho said. “I essentially went to my team, my husband, my family 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.’ I felt like I had completely lost what I was doing.
“It was a matter of them just calming me down and bringing me back to earth. I was being a bit crazy. I just really needed to dumb it down to the fundmentals, keep practicing, keep working and hope it would eventually come.”
Lee was in the midst of an even bigger comeback.
The ShopRite Classic represented her 200th career LPGA tournament, but had only one career victory, which occurred 12 years ago at the rain-shortened, 2013 Pure-Silk Bahamas Classic.
She nearly pulled it off. Lee fired an 8-under par 63 to open the ShopRite Classic Friday, then followed with a pair of 68’s to take second place, just one stroke behind Kupcho at 14-under 199.
She closed with back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 to cap a tremendous performance.
“It was the first time for me to start (a final round) as the leader, so I think I was a little nervous,” Lee said. “But I finished great, I think.”
While Kupcho and Lee were dueling down the stretch, Korea’s Sei Young Kim was staging one of the most up-and-down back nine’s in the 37-year history of the tournament en route to a third-place finish.
Kim turned in golf’s version of the rides on the nearby Ocean City Boardwalk. Her wild, whacky closing featured an ace on the Par-3 17th to go with four birdies, a par, a bogey and a double-bogey.
“It was a like a rollercoaster,” she said. “Up and down, up and down.”
Kupcho accomplished everything except determining the difference between an otter and a beaver.
“I think a beaver is smaller,” she said. “I think the beaver has the two front teeth that are bigger, but that also could just be a cartoon thing.”
For the record, beavers are bigger. They are known their dam-building abilities. Otters are better swimmers.
Maybe Kopcho and her caddie can weigh in on muskrats at the next tournament.
Several Locals among N.J. Surfing Hall of Fame inductees
Bruce Beach, Andrew Gesler, Bob McLaughlin, and the late Don Pileggi were among the 12 members of the 2025 New Jersey Surfing Hall of Fame Class that was inducted at a ceremony earlier this month in Long Branch.
Beach, a Northfield native, began surfing at Margate’s Knight Avenue in 1976, as well as States Avenue in Atlantic City, Ocean City and Cape May. He started competing in the Ocean City Surfing Association in 1978 and went on to win back-to-back Northeast men’s titles in the NSSA and was a member of the NSSA men’s national team in 1985-87.
Gesler, an Ocean City High School graduate, is considered one of the best local surfers of the last 50 years.
McLaughin, who is also an Ocean City High School grad, rode his first wave at the age of 10 at 18th Street in Ocean City in the summer of 1966. Twelve years later, he won a national longboard championship.
Pileggi, who passed away in 2021, was one of the people responsible for making Atlantic and Cape May Counties among the country’s top surfing locales. In 1964, while serving as Ocean City’s Director of Recreation, he teamed with John “Bull” Carey to create the Ocean City Surfing Association.
David is a nationally recognized sports columnist who has covered Philadelphia and local sports for over 40 years. After 35 years with The Press, he has served as a columnist for 973ESPN.com and created his own Facebook page, Dave Weinberg Extra Points.
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