Play Where The Pros Play
This is always one of our favorite weeks of the year in professional golf, with all the best Women’s players in the world coming to compete at the Stockton Seaview Resort and Spa in the LPGA’s ShopRite Classic.
Seaview has been our Northern East Coast flagship site and host to our New Jersey Golf school for the last 8 years.
We thought we would share some interesting facts about this wonderful old property:
1. In 1946, Grace Kelly’s family hosted her “Sweet Sixteen” birthday party in the main dining room. Grace would go on to become one of Hollywood’s greatest stars before marrying Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956 in a fairytale wedding becoming, “Princess Grace”.
2. Seaview has been the favorite golf resort of two U.S. Presidents both of whom were avid golfers. Warren G. Harding was a frequent visitor, who also enjoyed gambling on the links. Legend has it that President Harding placed a bet on every swing!
3. In the 1950’s, avid golfer and two-term President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, would stay at Seaview on numerous occasions. Because of Presidents Eisenhower’s passion for the game, the number of golfers in America doubled during his Presidency.
4. Seaview has been the temporary home to some of the world’s most famous musicians including Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones stayed at Seaview for 10 days in December of 1989 during their “Steel Wheels Tour”. Stones lead singer, Mick Jagger, had lunch with Clapton in the main dining room during their stay and Dylan used the alias, “Justin Case” when he stayed.
5. In the almost 30 year history of the ShopRite Classic, which is played on the Donald Ross Bay Course, there have been only four multiple winners. Three of those, Betsy King, Annika Sorenstam and Juli Inkster are already in the Hall of Fame and the fourth, Stacy Lewis, is well on her way bearing out the theory that great venues beget great Champions.
6. The Bay course was completed in 1915, making this its centenary year.
Heading into Sunday’s final round of the 2015 ShopRite Classic, it looked as though Morgan Pressel would claim her first LPGA Tour win since 2008. The 26-year old Pressel was once the “can’t miss kid” on the Tour due to her immediate success after turning professional in 2006. Pressel became the youngest player in history to win a Major at the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship and followed that up with a win in Hawaii the next year before the winless drought that has stretched until today.
Pressel has had a series of good finishes in 2015 in large part thanks to a swing change that she has made with coach Ron Stockton who Pressel reunited with this year. Never a long-hitter, Pressel has dramatically increased how far she is hitting the ball and the size of the purses she is earning. Pressel shot a closing 2-over par on Sunday to drop into a tie for third, but her next win may be just around the corner.
27-year old Swedish star, Anna Nordqvist, closed with a final round 2-under par, 69 to edge Christel Boeljon by one stroke at 8-under par. This was the 6 ft. tall Nordqvist’s third victory in the last 15 months on Tour and her fifth career triumph propelling her into the Top 10 of the Rolex World rankings.
