DIO IMPLANT LA OPEN

March 28, 2023

Marina Alex

Palos Verdes Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right, welcome to the virtual media center here at the DIO Implant LA Open. I am pleased to be joined by the Palos Verde Championship winner, Marina Alex.

Marina, this event last year, the first time that the LPGA Tour has been to Palos Verdes. For you to be able to come up champion, when you think about last year, what were some memories that come to mind?

MARINA ALEX: So many amazing memories. Obviously the last round and being able to win and kind of a little bit of a come-from-behind victory.

Overall I think it was a very home feeling week for me. Stayed with one of my friends from childhood who I played junior golf with, and I'm staying with her again. She recently had a baby, so we have a six month old in the house which is awesome.

It's just a very comfortable place. Since I came here last year everything just feels pretty comfortable. I love being here. Love the golf course. Members were amazing. Whole fan base was great last year.

Q. When you won last year you talked about a shift in mentality, what you had to overcome and what the win did for you. When you think about what you had to do to get to that win, now that you've been able to reflect a year later, what does it mean to you?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, I think I'm very appreciative of it. You don't know what the career is going do moving forward, how many more years you're playing or just battling with kind of like that a little bit of an injury, and everyone battles injuries and you don't know how long they take you out or they may be quick, they may be long.

I think at 32 now, and at that point I was 31, just more appreciative and just going to take whatever good stuff comes in my career moving forward as just gravy train.

Q. I remember one of the things that really stuck out to me, Solheim is this year, things on the horizon that you didn't think about until that win.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah.

Q. Have you started thinking about it?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, a little bit in a general sense. Would love to play on a Solheim again. That's definitely always goal. The team is as it stands right now, really rock solid; got some amazing players playing great this year.

It's going to be hard work. Not just going to be like a cake walk. Not that it ever should be, but it's definitely put a little bit more of like a spark and motivator under me.

Really looking forward it kicking off the rust. This is only my fourth start of the year. I took a little bit of a slower start than normal, which I think is good for me moving into the middle of the year. Hoping to not feel as tired physically.

Yeah, just hoping to get in a groove and I hope this week sparks some good golf moving forward.

Q. I think I saw an Instagram you announced this was year ten. There was a picture of you from nine years old. Here we are, your tenth year on the LPGA. As we start this swing of tournaments, what's it been like for you? You talk about a slower start. What have you been working on and what have you found success in in the past couple weeks?

MARINA ALEX: You know, it's just kind of trusting the stuff I've been changing in off-season. Still making those change Wisconsin my coach, Claude. You think it's going to be great, you're hitting balls on the range, it's awesome. Feel like all my prep was really good.

Got great workouts in with my trainer at home, Colby, and felt like for the first time in a couple years -- and I told him this -- I feel stronger, like my old self physically.

Then I got out in the first round in Arizona like, whoa, rust is still there. Singapore was a little rust. Even Hilton Grand kind of figuring it out.

I think this is week two in a row, then Hawaii, Chevron, and back to Wilshire. So I feel like in the whole stretch of events I feel like a good groove will come along.

Q. For you, before I open it up to the people here, you've won here.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah.

Q. Probably one of the most comfortable I want to say because of the win here. What are some of the keys to getting around this course on top?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, you know, it's a really cool, fun golf course. It's different than a lot of the tracks that we play every week.

There are some challenges. I think a little bit of luck involved with just bounces you're going to get and the contours and the elevation out here.

You just need some good favor to help you kind of propel you along. I think I had that last year, and I kind of will need that again. Anyone who is going to win here needs that little bit of good balance, good fortune to get them going in the right direction.

It's overall a really good test of golf. You have to hit good short shots, good long shots. You really need to be on your putting. Need to be confident and comfortable.

Greens are poa. They can be tricky. They have some undulation. It takes just like a little bit of confidence, but also you need to be calm in your decision making and knowing what you're doing and not overthinking or panicking.

Q. Also going to talk about the stamina.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah.

Q. We talked about that a little bit last year.

MARINA ALEX: I think I surprised myself there. There are some hills out here, some walks that are really difficult physically.

I feel like -- I hope I'm at a better place this time around than I was last year. It's nice. I feel good about that regardless of how the golf goes. It is a challenging four days.

There is a lot of energy into it and I don't know what the weather is going to be like, so could be just that extra element of difficulty.

Q. One of my interests is injury in golf. Can you give us a little more information on the injury you had? Was it golf related?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, I think it's a long-term -- I had a back -- a disc herniation.

Q. How long ago?

MARINA ALEX: In 2020. So I took a lot of time off after that just to rehab and rest. There were probably several different ways to go about dealing with that.

I think I took the longest probably most conservative approach, which I was okay with. It's a pretty common injury for a golfer, wear and tear on the body over all those years, working out, walking the course, making hundreds and millions of swings.

So it's just kind of like inevitable for some people. I think that if you polled a bunch of players out here, I think a lot have suffered similar injuries.

Q. Was the pain centered right or left side and have you made any swing changes to help?

MARINA ALEX: I have made swing changes. I think more right side than left side, but when you're at your worst point everything is not feeling that great.

Yeah, I did make a ton of swing changes with my coach, Claude. It's funny, they seemed counter-intuitive at first and felt like they were going to physically hurt, and they have actually take a lot of load off my spine. How I was swinging I think was contributing to my injury, but just a lot of the instability in my body.

It was hard for me to repeat that and stay in good shape to prevent injury. With those swing changes -- fingers crossed -- it'll be a lot better moving forward.

Q. So did you cut out rotation, lateral movement?

MARINA ALEX: Less lateral movement.

Q. All right.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, I think I've had too much lateral movement in my swing over the years. This is kind of helping me stay a little bit more stable.

Q. I was with you in the parking lot, and a lot of people are saying defending cham, you won out here. What's it like when you won last year? Your first win since the 2018. To be able to come back and know you were so successful at this place, what's it like having those perks again?

MARINA ALEX: It's nice. I kind of forgot until I got here. I was trying to park and the guy was like, oh, the parking lot is full. Do you mind going back up to the front? I was like, I think I might have a spot here.

Okay, awesome. Go check it out. There was. It was really nice. At least I have a parking spot because it is a tiny parking lot.

Q. That and also trying to get one for your caddie.

MARINA ALEX: I am trying to get one for my caddie selfishly, but it's okay.

Q. With that, as you kind of focus on this week in general, what are some of the changes that you're making from the past couple weeks in your swing that will prove successful?

MARINA ALEX: I think just sticking with what I've been doing. I'm just feeling confident and comfortable and not overthinking what I'm doing out there.

I think it's easy to do when you've made maybe some changes or things seem new. You get too deep into a thought process.

So I'm trying to trust what I'm seeing and doing and just spent a little bit more time on the putting green yesterday. I didn't feel like that was a strong suit last week and I know it's going to be very important here, so I just spent some time on the putting green last night and I was like let me see what I can figure out.

Probably going to do more of the same today when I get out on the course.