Staff WriterCeline Boutier won the ShopRite LPGA powered by Wakefern by one stroke after turning a four-shot deficit into a closing-day reminder that golf, much like a wasp at a picnic, rarely behaves politely for very long.
The Rolex Rankings No. 29 carded five birdies, one bogey and needed only 26 putts in a final round that had all the delicate cruelty of a Sunday leaderboard tightening its collar. Boutier finished at nine-under, one clear of Arpichaya Yubol, to claim her seventh career LPGA Tour victory and her first win since The Maybank Championship in 2023.
That gap matters. It had been 954 days since Boutier last lifted a trophy on Tour. Not that she played like someone counting.
Boutier Returns To A Happy Hunting Ground
This was not just another tick in the career column. Boutier also became a two-time winner of this tournament, having previously won it in 2021, joining Juli Inkster, Betsy King, Annika Sorenstam, Stacy Lewis and Anna Nordqvist among the event’s multiple champions.
There are worse clubs to join. There are also quieter ones.
For Boutier, the ShopRite LPGA has never been just another stop on the schedule. It was where she earned her first LPGA win in the United States, and now it is the place where she has properly reintroduced herself to the winner’s circle.
“Yeah, it’s very special. It was my first win on the LPGA in the U.S., so it was already a special tournament for me, but to be able to come back this year and win it again is definitely making it even more special. I think I have such great memories on this course and I’ve met such cool people during the pro-ams and stuff like that. Yeah, I feel like this week is definitely a lot of really good memories and very excited to also come back next year and defend.”
There is something rather pleasing about that. Golf can be a cold, transactional business when the putter goes quiet and Sundays start arriving with fangs. Yet here was Boutier, back on familiar ground, calmly doing the arithmetic with birdies rather than hope.
A Final Round Built On Nerve, Not Noise
The win also continued a recent habit at this tournament: champions arriving from behind rather than strolling in from the front lawn. Seven of the last 10 winners of the ShopRite LPGA were multiple shots back entering the final round.
Boutier’s round was not fireworks in the gaudy sense. It was better than that. Five birdies, one bogey, 26 putts, and just enough steel in the hands to make the rest of the leaderboard feel the draught.
By the end, she had become the eighth unique winner on the LPGA Tour this season, the first player from Europe to win on Tour this season, and the first Frenchwoman to win on Tour since herself in 2023.
That last detail is very Boutier: quiet dominance, neatly filed under “as you were”.
Yubol Pushes Hard But Falls One Short
Arpichaya Yubol did plenty to make Boutier earn it. Her final-round 66, containing seven birdies and two bogeys, took her to eight-under and into solo second. It was her second runner-up finish of 2026, following another near-miss at the Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba.
For a player enjoying the first season in which she has posted a runner-up finish, this was another convincing sign of forward movement. The only sting was that one-shot penalty assessed on No. 13 during her third round for slow play, the sort of administrative bruise that becomes rather more noticeable when the final margin is one.
Still, Yubol did not sound like someone interested in self-pity.
“It’s going to be actually, how to say, it’s a good day for me, so finish like second place for now. And, yeah, it’s kind of consistent a little bit for me, for my game. And I play with my friend, Chanettee, so we have to talk a little bit. We walk on the course and play together, so we don’t have anything stressful when we play together. It’s kind of friend and friend together. And, yeah, I do my best on my way as I can. And it’s golf. Everything happen is happen. But I’m really happy, yeah.”
It was a charmingly human response: honest, calm and considerably more balanced than most golfers would manage after finishing one stroke shy of a title.
Lauren Walsh Delivers Rookie Breakthrough
Behind Boutier and Yubol, Lauren Walsh produced the best LPGA Tour finish of her young career. The 2026 rookie closed with a 67, making five birdies and one bogey to finish solo third.
It was her first finish inside the top 60 on the LPGA Tour, which makes this more than a tidy Sunday score. It was a proper arrival note. Not the full brass band just yet, perhaps, but certainly more than someone tapping a spoon against a glass.
For rookies, weeks like this are valuable not because they solve everything, but because they change the room. A player starts the week trying to belong. She ends it knowing she can.
Polly Mack Sees The Work Starting To Show
Polly Mack, who finished tied fourth at six-under, also left with reason to believe the machinery is beginning to turn in the right direction.
“100%. I feel like it’s finally coming together and finally showing off on the course what I have been working on for so long. It’s nice to see that, because it’s so much hard work that a lot of the people don’t see, a lot of tears that fell in the last couple years. Yeah, it’s just really, really nice to see that showing off finally. Even with my team, everybody that stands behind me, has my back, roots for me, I’m just so happy that I can finally show that out here and play for everybody else and me. (Laughter.)”
That is often the part the scorecard refuses to print: the hours, the doubt, the stubbornness, the people behind the curtain keeping the whole thing upright with tape, patience and unfashionable optimism.
Boutier’s Bigger Career Picture
Boutier’s latest victory lifts her 2026 LPGA Tour win tally to one, with two top-10 finishes this season and official season earnings of $588.4K. Across her LPGA Tour career, she now owns seven wins, 46 official top-10 finishes and $9.5 million in career official money.
Her résumé already includes The 2023 Amundi Evian Championship, her sole major title, as well as appearances for the European Team in the Solheim Cup in 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2024. She also represented France at the Olympics in 2020 and 2024.
She is, quite simply, the winningest French golfer. This week merely added another polished line to the ledger.
A Tournament With A Taste For Movement
The ShopRite LPGA powered by Wakefern has long had a habit of producing scoring volatility, and the tournament records underline the point. Linnea Strom’s 60 from the third round in 2024 remains the 18-hole mark, while the 36-hole record of 130 has been matched by Amy Benz, Denise Killeen, Stacy Lewis, Karine Icher and Sei Young Kim.
At 54 holes, Annika Sorenstam and Anna Nordqvist share the tournament scoring record of 196. Boutier did not need to trouble those numbers. She needed timing, nerve and a putter with the social confidence of a dinner guest who knows everyone in the room.
She found all three.
A Win With Familiar Ground Beneath It
There are victories that arrive as breakthroughs, and there are victories that feel like restorations. Boutier’s ShopRite LPGA win belongs firmly in the second category.
Four shots back at the start of the final round, one shot clear by the end, and back in possession of a trophy she already knew rather well. Golf does enjoy a circle when it can find one.
For Boutier, this was more than a seventh LPGA Tour title. It was proof that the old rhythm is still there, waiting patiently beneath the noise.
