GALLOWAY – While it was not quite the same caliber of round that she was able to put together during round one, Ilhee Lee still managed to put together a round that pushed her into solo first place heading into “Championship Sunday” at the 2025 ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer at a soggy Seaview Bay Course in Galloway.
Lee finished her day with a 3-under-par 68 to move to 11-under for the tournament.
“Today was totally different day, completely different day, and I knew it’s going to be completely different day, so I didn’t have any expectations,” Lee said of her second round, adding, “Just like I did yesterday, I was just playing golf. Have fun out there. Made some birdies on first nine. It was fun. Happy again.”
Lee started her second round similarly to how she started her first round. After paring her first hole, Lee birdied her next two holes. Following a par on her fourth and fifth holes, Lee then birdied her sixth and ninth holes to round out her front nine.
On her back nine, Lee ran into some trouble. She parred her first seven holes of her back nine before she hit a snag, double-bogeying her 17th hole of the day.
” I wanted to hit it close to the hole, so I was a little bit short, Lee said of her double bogey. “I should have hit it safe area instead of hitting right at the flag, but I did because I was feeling good. I feel like I can go close.”
Lee continued, “But I missed by like less than a yard. Went in the bunker. The first putt, same thing. I was very confident. I had very confident on this putt. Missed it. I was fine. Did the same thing, putt again and missed it again, which is golf.”
However, after her double bogey, Lee recovered and got one stroke back by notching a birdie on her final hole of the day.
“Yeah, then last hole, par-5, hit great tee shot, second shot–the double bogey didn’t really bother me,” Lee said of her birdie on her final hole. “Yeah, so I just played, yeah, what I have for the last hole.”
Ayaka Furue, Jennifer Kupcho, Mao Saigo, and Elizabeth Szokol all sit in second place, a stroke behind Lee heading into Sunday’s final round.
Saigo had the highlight of the day, when after recording a bogey on her previous hole, she notched an albatross from 214 yards out from the pin on the par-5 third hole.
“I had a bogey first, but right after that I had an albatross,” Saigo said of her play. “From there, I was able to keep my momentum going. It was a good round.”
Mays Landing native Joanna Coe missed the cut, finishing at +10 for the tournament.
The final day of the 2025 ShopRite LPGA Classic tees off Sunday morning with the first group set to tee off at 7:30 in Galloway.
For more coverage from the second round of the 2025 ShopRite LPGA Classic, check out the gallery from, OnNJ Sports photographer, Tim Hadorn.
