COGNIZANT FOUNDERS CUP

October 6, 2021

Marina Alex

Mountain Ridge Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right, here with Marina Alex a the Cognizant Founders Cup. Marina, we're not just down the street from home but pretty close to home. Closest you probably played in a while. Got to be fun to be back in North Jersey.

MARINA ALEX: It's incredible. This is the closest I've been -- Bedminster for the U.S. Open a few years ago was kind of closer, but this is by far -- I mean, this is a home game.

I spent a lot time here growing up. Couple people have asked me if I played here or if I've been here, it's funny, a guy that works here in the shop, Ed Osowski, he's one of the pros. He is the first guy that ever game gave me lessons, and that was at club that I grew up playing in North Jersey in Wayne, but he took a job here and I would come over here and take lessons with him through high school.

We kind of organically went our separate ways, but love Ed. He's a great guy. Lenny in the shop is also great. Just like such a good vibe being here.

Q. Does that maybe give you a little bit of extra spark as you head to the course?

MARINA ALEX: Absolutely. It's just they -- I know some of members here and they're so excited for us to be here. I know they been trying to have a women's golf tournament for a really long time.

It's just incredible that that's our event here now, Founders and Cognizant, all that is coming together and it's turning out to be a really, really special tournament.

Q. I've been talking to a couple of the members about how much they love their course. We heard from other players it's a major course, and particularly well set up for the women's game.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah.

Q. How do you feel Mountain Ridge is going to set up for you?

MARINA ALEX: It's going to definitely be tough. I know we've gotten some rain in the last few days, but I do think the weather looks like it's turning and it's going to dry out, so I think that will add a cool element to it.

There are some slight doglegs or run-outs that you need to pay attention to if you're hitting driver, so may force players to back up and hit maybe one less club and makes it a little bit more challenging into the green.

I think overall it's really, really well designed and set up golf course. I think that we'll see -- I would be surprised to see a super low score winning this week. I think that there are some good golf out there, but anything over 12- or 15-under would be really, really great four days of golf.

Q. The main reason we're here is because of the membership that's willingly donating their course for the week, but also because of Cognizant, doubling the purse, bringing us to this area. The Founders Cup has always been really important to the LPGA, celebrating our Founders, but now it's at a new level.

MARINA ALEX: I know, it is, and it's really wonderful to see that this tournament is getting elevated to that level. In some ways I think it should mirror a PLAYERS Championship. It should be the closest thing to a major without being a major.

I think we're taking a step in the right direction with both Cognizant coming on board, being here at Mountain Ridge, and just everything about this week. Like most of the players have said, it's major vibes. I think we definitely will keep that hopefully, and keep it even trending in the right direction.

Q. Absolutely. I know Monday night was also a special night for you. We're all keeping Jane and Pete and little Grace in our hearts, but you had a great opportunity to help really get them so the fundraising efforts. Can you tell us about that?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, one of Jane and I's sponsor Golf4Her, she helps outfits us with all our apparel. Christina Thompson's company that she's had for I think it's been just over ten years she's been running Golf4Her. It's an online retailer. She had this idea. I think she came to me maybe five or six weeks ago. I was like, I really want to do something for them and will you help me. We didn't even really know what that was going to be. We just were brainstorming. It was definitely more her idea.

She has great connections in this area. Grew up in New Jersey. The base and the venue we went to was fantastic. She organized all the tickets, and on my end it was getting as much of the golf community involved as we could, players coming to help, and then although just different items to donate that were going to help raise money.

And so I think in five weeks we did a pretty good job for not really knowing what we were doing. Overall it's just about helping them. I think everyone had a great time. It was a good success. I don't think it'll be the last time we do something like that. After talking with Christina again, sounds like we want to try to make this an annual thing or -- semi-annual might be a little hard on planning side, but if we can do something once a year for them moving forward that would be awesome.

Q. It can sometimes sound cliche that it's a family out here, but this is a prime example of how it is.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, and I know we do say that a lot, and I know for a fact as players, we mean that with one another. I've known Jane as long as I've been on tour, one of the first people I met out here.

It's really heartbreaking to see what's going on. Just talking to her on Monday was super tough. It really was hard. I mean, we've known Pete and the guys out here have known Pete. Both elements. It's like Jane is playing and Pete is caddieing and everyone out here knows them. They're such a huge face of our tour.

We will do anything we can to help them.

Q. I had a great time.

MARINA ALEX: It was awesome. I mean, it's hard that that's what it's for, but it was really nice to see how well it was received and how much everyone enjoyed themselves.

Q. Thanks for doing that.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah.

Q. I have a question on the same lines. Did it surprise you how many people came? It certainly did me.

MARINA ALEX: It did a bit. It surprised Christina Thompson as well. I know that she had in her mind I think it was about 100 to 150 ticketed guests, and then added the element of the players and the caddies, that was about I want to say like 30 to 40 of them.

People just came and wanted to buy tickets at the door, which you're not going to turn them away. It was a little crazy. It was a great thing. It really was.

Q. I think it speaks to the love that we have within this community.

MARINA ALEX: Uh-huh.

Q. Can you just talk about how overwhelming it has been?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, it's been a little overwhelming. When everything happened that week of Dallas, I was a little shellshocked. I know that a lot of our tour friends were. Honestly, it still is -- hasn't really changed. Like that -- it's still very raw. It's hard.

It really is. I don't know when I'm going to see Jane out here again. That's the hard thing to accept. It's just completely different, and it is, it's a challenge.

Q. I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about how nice it is that we are now going to classic old clubs like this and classic old golf courses.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah.

Q. That seems to be a trend. Is it one you like and one you would like to see more of?

MARINA ALEX: I think it's an amazing opportunity for women's golf because we haven't outgrown any of these golf courses. I think it's going to work in our favor moving forward.

Both like on our tour and then we'll see with probably major championships on the USGA side and R&A and PGA of America. A lot of these classic courses are too short for the men and are definitely not too short for us, and they're fantastic venues.

I think we need to utilize that as an advantage to go back to some of these places that can hold great tournaments, and we don't really need to worry about a length element because at their longest they're still plenty long for us.

Q. So we're here at this classic course, close to home. Are you going to have some family and friends out?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, my mom and brother are around. My dad is in Florida. My parents have moved, so I'm hoping he'll be coming up for the weekend. Then I definitely will have high school friends coming out and probably random fans and people I may or don't necessarily know as well.

There will be some good support out here this week which I'm looking forward to.

Q. Awesome. Enjoy every minute. We'll see you down the road?

MARINA ALEX: Thanks.