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CAMBIA PORTLAND CLASSIC

August 27, 2019

Marina Alex

Portland, Oregon

Q. Alongside the defending champion, Marina Alex. Looking back on your first career victory, what memories come to mind as you come back here?
MARINA ALEX: Everything, actually. The whole week was pretty incredible, from start to finish. This place is special. I've always loved coming to Portland. I love coming to Edgewater. I think it's the best course that we play all year. It's just a magical place, and from the 62 all the way through the last day, it just kind of set up to be a perfect week.

Q. Adding to the magic here, your face is plastered on billboards throughout the town of Portland. What's it like to see your face all around town?
MARINA ALEX: It's a little awkward, not going to lie. It's cool, though. I've just never gotten exposure like this before, so it's kind of different to see yourself in the locker room and everywhere. The billboards are massive. It's something I'm getting used to.

Q. Making your Solheim Cup debut in a couple weeks. How do you balance defending your title here versus doing what you need to do to get prepared for the Solheim Cup in a couple weeks?
MARINA ALEX: Yeah, that's a good question. It'll be hard to say until I kind of go through the process of teeing it up on Thursday. I think it's going to be really good prep for Solheim. This is a different experience for me being a defending champ. Solheim will be different for me, too, so I think there will be some uncomfortable feelings, and that will be a really good way to just kind of work through them and figure some things out. Hopefully this is not a test trial for anything, but you just don't know what's going to happen until it happens.

Q. As a returning champion, what is it about this course this year and the time of year that is different than when you played last year?
MARINA ALEX: I don't think anything.

Q. Have you noticed any new challenges?
MARINA ALEX: Haven't been on the course yet, so I can't tell you. I don't have an answer for you. It's the exact same week as it was last year, and if they did what they did to get the course ready, it should be in pretty similar condition.

Putting green yesterday seemed pretty pure, so they always do a fantastic job here.

Q. They're projecting really hot weather going into it but not necessarily during the tournament --
MARINA ALEX: Yeah, we've had very hot weather here in years past, so whatever the greens crew and the super does to get it ready, they've done a perfect job of that, so I'm sure it'll be great.

Q. What is it about Portland that you enjoy, if anything, off the course? Do you get to go downtown?
MARINA ALEX: Yeah, definitely, like the food scene is incredible. There's so much great stuff to eat. The past few years I've been staying in the Alberta District, which is really close to here, and it's just awesome because you can walk everywhere. There's cafes, there's Salt and Straw, there's restaurants, but it's also really close to the course so it's like the convenience factor, and it's just nice to be in a house and kind of just have a different vibe than being in a hotel or being kind of far away from everything. You just kind of feel like you're in the thick of the city.

Q. For a lot of people this is a comfortable week.
MARINA ALEX: It is super comfortable. You know, we don't really get too many surprises playing the golf course. You know what you're getting. If you're hitting it well and you're putting well, you can totally score, but it does present challenges, so you kind of expect that going in, and it's a very fair test.

Q. Obviously last year you were so successful. Are you looking at your preparation in the same way, or have you got like different family with you this week? Is it really different?
MARINA ALEX: No, the only thing that's different this week is my coach is here, and that was not truthfully because of this week as being returning trying to defend. He's from Australia. It's difficult for us to find weeks together, and then with Solheim coming up, we kind of felt like this was the best option because he doesn't have to travel -- well, he still has to travel far, but he doesn't have to travel nearly as far as if we were looking to meet in Florida in an off week or something like that. So this was good. This was a good setup for us, and it's nice. There's some stuff I needed to work on, so it's good to get that going into this week, and then I'll have another week to practice.

Q. Have you talked with anyone, any of your friends out there about what it's like to defend?
MARINA ALEX: Not really. You know, I don't know. I think it's different for everyone. I really don't know. I'm trying to just take it as easy going as I can. You know, winning, I think, winning the first time has got to be one of the hardest things, and I was really like lucky -- well, lucky, fortunate, whatever you want to say, able to do that. So I think that that pressure and monkey off the back is kind of gone. Defending isn't easy. It's not like the numbers prove themselves like every year. You look, Brooke has defended here, but it's not a common thing to have a player repeat the very next time around.

That in itself is kind of like a little bit of -- I guess it eases me a little bit to know I could go out and I could really play great and someone could play better. There's nothing wrong with that. If I happen to repeat, that's fantastic. I would be super proud of myself, but I'm not going to be hard on myself in terms of the result this week.

Q. What's the weirdest thing that's happened since you've been on-site? Are people saying hi to you --
MARINA ALEX: No. Jodi is one of my really good friends, and her caddie took a selfie with my picture down in the front, and he sent it to me, and it's like a massive picture of myself. That was funny. But also just like it's crazy. It's cool. I'm really liking it. I don't really love that much attention, so this is kind of like out of my element a little bit. I'm trying to do my best with it.

Q. It's a good problem.
MARINA ALEX: I guess. I don't know. I just like flying under the radar. That's kind of more my jam.

Q. Are you staying with a hosting family?
MARINA ALEX: No, rented an Airbnb.

Q. Is this hosting for golfers, is this common with all courses?
MARINA ALEX: Yeah.

Q. Does it make you more comfortable to play when you stay in a house as opposed to a hotel?
MARINA ALEX: It depends. Like this is a great area. You've got a lot of nice homes, and like I said, the convenience of being able to walk to a bunch of different places to eat. Some week it's not that simple. Some weeks a hotel is better. So it just depends on where we are.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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