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THORNBERRY CREEK LPGA CLASSIC

July 3, 2019

Marina Alex

Oneida, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: All right, here inside the media center with Rolex Rankings No. 34 and LPGA Tour winner Marina Alez.

Marina, how are you doing today?

MARINA ALEX: Great. How are you?

THE MODERATOR: I am doing fantastic. This is your first time her at Thornnberry. What have you taken in so far?

MARINA ALEX: It's beautiful, the course, everything out here. It's really nice to be up in like north Midwest I guess. I don't know exactly what you would call this region.

But it's just perfect time of year, summer. Course looks beautiful. Going to be a fun week. Lots of birdies.

THE MODERATOR: I was going to say, it's known to go low. How do you think this course fits your game for this week?

MARINA ALEX: It definitely maybe forces me a little bit out of my comfort zone in the sense that I definitely need to attack more if I want to be in contention. So for me, sometimes where I'm strategizing on a course I would maybe look to play a little bit more conservative, I'm going to have to maybe be a bit more aggressive than I normally would in order to get birdies and eagles, which have been out here in the past couple years.

For me it's a good challenge.

THE MODERATOR: This is a Solheim Cup year. Right now you're No. 7 in the standings. How long has Solheim been a goal for you?

MARINA ALEX: I mean, a while. I think that it's everyone's goal as an American or as a European when you turn professional. You're out here to represent either your -- well, America or your countries, and to compete against one another it's -- I mean, on TV it looks like the most unbelievable experience, so it would being an absolute honor to be part of the team hopefully this year and hopefully few more years to come.

THE MODERATOR: Has Captain Juli Inkster reached out to you at all, given you any advice in the last couple tournaments?

MARINA ALEX: We had a team kind of bonding thing that went on after the San Francisco event, and she spent a lot of time with us. There was about 15 of us there. It was Juli and Nancy, and all of us were out there just kind of having a good time, getting to know each other, figuring out everyone's personalities, and just trying to really get that team aspect going.

In terms of the past couple weeks, no, I think she's just probably letting everyone play their game and just figure out where they stand and how they feel about their golf. I mean, it's a lot of pressure going into the last few weeks for a lot of the girls. I'm sure not just myself, but anyone who would be playing for their first time.

So I think she understands that and she's just letting us do our own thing.

THE MODERATOR: Do you feel any extra pressure to do well at Solheim? The rankings points end as Solheim approaches us in September.

MARINA ALEX: I mean, probably. I don't think just myself. Probably other players who are in similar positions as mine. You know, it would be great to be higher up at Solheim points ranking or the World Ranking to where these last however many events are left - I'm not entirely sure - may not be as critical. For a lot of girls it is critical.

So, yeah, there is some pressure, but it just it is what it is. It's just like playing anything else. You always have goals you're trying to achieve. Those don't necessarily go away. They just change or they build upon each other as you're going on in your career.

It's just learning to deal with that.

THE MODERATOR: Does it give you extra motivation as well, boost your confidence knowing that you right now do have a place on a Solheim Cup team?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, it's awesome. It's what you work towards, like we just talked about, your career. When you decide that you're going to be a professional golfer, you know, this is the pinnacle of what it is.

I mean, winning a tournament is incredible, too. I think they're probably completely different in a lot of senses. It's just being a part of something that's bigger than just yourself. It's for your country, and I guess it would be similar to an Olympics or an International Crown.

Just is completely different sense of what the purpose is out there.

THE MODERATOR: Anyone out here? I know Kent has one.

Q. With it being a Solheim Cup year and so few events left, have you considered changing your schedule to play in more events because of how close it is in the points from 7-10?
MARINA ALEX: No. I think that that -- you know, the ultimate objective is to play well. If you're trying to play more than you know that you're capable of physically, mentally whatever, I don't think that's necessarily going to make you play better.

So I'm just going to play the schedule I had set out to play when I made it. It's been a couple months. Just stick to the schedule that I've had. If it's enough, great. If not, it's not. But at the end of the day, there are a lot of things that I'm sure not just myself but other players -- you know, physical aspects where you need to take care of your body and make sure that you're putting yourself in a position to play the best you can these weeks coming up at Solheim if you're playing Solheim. Beyond Solheim there is Asia. There is a whole end of the year.

There is a lot to take into account more than just one week in particular.

THE MODERATOR: How do you think your style of game would be on a Solheim Cup team this year and go into match play?

MARINA ALEX: You know, I think that in years past there has probably been a lot of pretty long hitters on the Solheim Cup teams, and that's great. I think that maybe I would be able to complement that a little bit with accuracy off the tee. Greens in regulation stats have been pretty good in the past few years, so I think that's definitely a benefit to anyone that I would potentially be playing with as a partner.

Maybe be able to allow them to be a little bit more free and aggressive if they're looking to fire and make a bunch of birdies in a best ball or better ball. I'm not exactly sure which format it is where you're guys are both just playing for the best score. Not alternative shot; that's a whole different element.

Again, I really don't have a lot of experience playing alternate shot. Looking forward to the team event coming up in a couple weeks because I think it'll be a great way for me to just learn about it and play alternate shot under tournament conditions.

I've done it a few times for fun, but, I mean, there is really no way to know until you do it.

THE MODERATOR: So for Dow coming up...

MARINA ALEX: Yep.

THE MODERATOR: Are you excited to just kind of test the waters? You are you going to be playing with?

MARINA ALEX: I'm playing with Brittany Lang, which is going to be a lot of fun. We haven't done and announcement or a reveal and I don't think we're going to at this point, so here it is. Ta da! We're playing together.

Yeah, she has so much experience playing. We were talking a little bit about it yesterday. She's played five Solheims so she knows a lot about all the different formats. It's going to be a lot fun to play with her and just see how she handles playing alternate shot.

I think the best ball is kind of -- you're still just playing your own game, as is your partner. The only thing is you're playing a foursome, which I guess from a time standpoint is a little bit different because you're not used to that. But I'm really excited to learn from her and go out there and play in the Dow event.

THE MODERATOR: Was that part of strategy of learning from her, or are you guys super close, have played together before?

MARINA ALEX: We haven't played together before. I was probably going to play with Michelle originally. We had talked a lot about it. Unfortunately she had such a tough year with her injuries, so she had told me that -- she is just like, I just don't know where I'm going to be at. If I'm healthy to play, you know, how it falls in the schedule is right before two majors. And I totally understand that those obviously need to be more of a priority for any player.

So for her playing three weeks in a row like didn't look likely, so at that point I was looking for a new partner. I had asked a couple different people, but Lang and I, we get along. We're not close off the course, but we have really good chemistry on the course. We laugh, joke. We have similar personalities. Her brother is awesome on the bag.

I think we're just going to have a good time. I think it's a good -- because we get along but we're not really like best friends, I think it'll be great once we get to the golf course.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Marina? With that, we'll wrap it up here. Thank you for coming in and best of luck.

MARINA ALEX: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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