HILTON GRAND VACATIONS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 17, 2023

Marina Alex

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Season is underway, just your approach or mindset entering this new season?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, I think this is a great first week to the year. We're all pretty fortunate to be able to play this event as Tournament of Champions, but it's a fun week, and it's a great way to get started. A little less intense than a normal week, so I think it's just a great kickoff, and I'm really looking forward to the '23 season.

Q. How much do you enjoy -- seems like you have some good relationships with some of the celebrities?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, I've been lucky, I've met some really cool people along the way. Brian and I actually played the Kia Classic pro-am years ago, and we hit it off, kind of kept in touch. I played with Michael Peña in this event and also kept in touch with him. He loves golf. They love golf just as much as we do in their own way, and I think it's just fun to share that with them.

Q. How much did you enjoy this break the glass event?

MARINA ALEX: It was sneaky hard. I was a little nerve racked there on the last one. We should be able to beat them, and at one point I was like, uh-oh, I think they're going to kick our butts.

Q. Were you nervous?

MARINA ALEX: I was, yeah. First shot I was nervous. I hadn't ever done this before, so I was like, I don't really know what to hit. I don't know the trajectory exactly, all that, and then after the first shot and then Paula nailed it and she was like giving us pointers, so we were kind of good after that.

Q. Normally you'd get in trouble or there would be an insurance claim for breaking glass. When you can do it for fun --

MARINA ALEX: To be honest, it's a little unnerving because you don't know how the ball is going to react, and there was a lot of wild reactions from the ball, like one went into the tent, one was going straight backwards, so you get a little flinchy when you're about to hit it, so you need to get over that.

Q. How do you deal with it when you play with the celebrities in the actual tournament rounds? How do you deal with watching it? Some are good, some not so good?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, I think you have to take the good of each experience. You're going to have great players out there and it's going to be fun to watch. Some of the athletes that are retired and this is almost like their second passion and their second sport, they strive to be as good as we are, and they take it very seriously, and the nuance and all of that is something really cool to share with another athlete of like such a high level that has competed in a different sport. So it's a really cool conversation to have, and then you meet some amazing people that they may not be like the best, may not be scratch golfers, but it's just great to learn about their world, how they have become successful, and it's a good -- I don't know, it's just a fun week that you just learn new things and meet new people.