THE CHEVRON CHAMPIONSHIP

April 18, 2024

Marina Alex

The Club at Carlton Woods

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Marina Alex after her 4-under round in the first round of The Chevron Championship. You just mentioned briefly in an interview there about a lot of beautiful shots you had today. How do you feel your ball striking was out there?

MARINA ALEX: I felt it was pretty good. It was a little sketchy I would say to start the round. I felt like I wasn't -- my tempo wasn't clicking. Didn't feel like I was really swinging as fluidly as I would've liked. I kind of grooved into it as we got through the round.

I hit some nice shots at the end of my front nine and the beginning of the back nine on then I was able to convert a little bit more on the putting element of it.

Q. One early bogey in your round.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah.

Q. Then you had a lot of the birdies there on the back in that stretch. Just talk us through that stretch and maybe especially about the long birdie putt on 11.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, on 9 I had a great look for birdie and didn't convert. Maybe about an eight-footer. Hit a great 4-hybrid on 10 and used the slope and had about six feet, which I did make for birdie.

So I felt like that was a really solid birdie.

Got to 11 and hit honestly my worst strike of the day as far as the approach into the green and holed a bomb. It was really lucky. Feel like if that didn't hit the pin it's probably ten feet for par.

Those are the things that help the momentum going in the right direction. Converted an awesome up-and-down over the back on 12, which is a really tough hole to even get on the green.

From there, I had wedge approaches on the par-5 and then the following par-4, and those were both really solid. One was a tap-in and the other was about a 12-footer.

Coming in I felt like I had looks all the way through 18. I didn't convert them, but overall they were good putts and really close.

Q. Talk about seeing a good round like this in a first round of a major championship and what that does.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, does a lot for my confidence. I think I had a really nice opening round here last year and didn't carry it through for four rounds, so I would like to improve upon that and build into tomorrow and the weekend and find myself in contention, which would be wonderful.

Q. I would like to ask you how old were you when you first started playing golf?

MARINA ALEX: I was young. I was four. My dad took me out to play, my brother and I, when we were really little. He got the club in our hand when we were pretty much able to walk and run around.

Q. What tips would you give to junior golfers like me?

MARINA ALEX: I think the biggest thing is to have fun. Golf is a really hard sport and sometimes beats you down, and the best thing that you can do is to find the joy in being out there and playing.

Q. Have you ever had a hole-in-one?

MARINA ALEX: I have.

Q. How old were you when you got your hole-in-one?

MARINA ALEX: I think my first hole-in-one I was maybe 15.

Q. Thank you.

MARINA ALEX: I heard you just had a hole-in-one though.

Q. Yes.

MARINA ALEX: Beats the rest of us. (Laughing.)

Q. You're a player that shares a lot on social media and are very open when things aren't going great. You steadied out this year. What's been the key for you mentally to really have that Steady Eddie season so far?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, I think I lost my way a little bit in the middle of last year. Maybe just got really results-oriented and got out of the process of just playing golf.

I was chasing trying to make that Solheim team and really set me off in a bad direction from a pressure perspective. Felt like I let myself down and then I kind of just felt like I never got out of that funk.

You know, honestly when the season ended I was so thankful for it to be over. I remember I just felt like it was not going in a good way no matter what I was trying.

That's the beauty of off-season. It ended and I put in a lot of great work with my team at home. Added couple new people to my team that have helped me tremendously.

You know, at the end of the day it's just, again, just trying to get back on track and not worry about the results. When you're diving into hitting shots and being out there and really focusing on what you're doing task at hand, it's redundant and people say it all the time.

But at the end of the day, if that's what you're doing you're going perform well. When you get results-oriented or worry about the outcome or worry about what's going on, not just you, but around you, that's when things get wayward. You get mentally distracted.

I really caved into that last year badly, and I'm trying to do a better job of not caving into that this year. It'll be a challenge, but I feel like we're off to a better start with it.

Q. And having a round like today, obviously mentioned this last year too, but how do you wipe the slate clean, get yourself ready to go tomorrow and attack this golf course?

MARINA ALEX: Yeah, I think I played great today. I'm not going to disagree with that. I think there is an opportunity to even drive a little bit better, hit a couple better approaches, and I just feel like I didn't play perfect golf by any means.

So I think that's reassuring to know that I can shoot a good score, not make it seem like it was the best round or a round that's not repeatable. So I think that's some confidence building to know that I can go out with that game that I had today and maybe even a bit of a better game and try and piece together another great round in the afternoon.

It'll be tough. It's getting windy. Greens will firm out a little bit. It's hot. So those afternoon rounds are always a little bit harder.

Q. You're a player that has won in very tough conditions. Got Palos Verdes couple years ago.

MARINA ALEX: Yeah.

Q. Does that help you almost when it gets harder to lock into that process more?

MARINA ALEX: I think so, yeah. With the wind and with just faster greens and needing to really think about where do I want to be on this hole, not necessarily like, you know, trying to hit it full or flush. Or sometimes we get out here and when the conditions are a touch benign we get into range mode and we're not necessarily playing shots and playing the elements and what the course is giving you.

So have a little bit more to think about in a good way. Just to really dial in on where do I want to land it, what kind of shot do I want to play. Do I want to play a fade or a draw. Just kind of leaning in on utilizing that kind of approach versus just get up and hit a ranger.