THE CHEVRON CHAMPIONSHIP

April 18, 2024

Marina Alex

The Club at Carlton Woods

TV

Q. Here alongside Marina Alex. Big smile from you during the round today rolling that one in from off 11. Four birdies in a five-hole stretch. What changed there on the back nine?

MARINA ALEX: You know, I think it was just a little bit of good momentum. I had hit it pretty nicely early this morning. You know, course plays a little bit longer first thing in the morning.

So it wasn't that easy to get it super close to the hole. I was just trying to be patient. Hit a really nice shot on 9 and I didn't convert that.

Then I hit another beautiful shot on 10.

Got really lucky on 11. It was actually the worst-struck iron I had all day and made like a 70-foot putt or something wild, and got good momentum off that amazing up and down from the back bunker on 12. My wedge game was really nice coming down the stretch the last six holes.

I had opportunities to shoot a little bit lower, but I'm really pleased with how I finished. There were some pretty dicey hole locations there on 15 and 16, so to get away with green in regs and two pretty easy pars, I can't complain about that.

Q. You mentioned how well you've been playing, and Morgan Pressel reiterated this as well during the coverage. She has talked to you and you've played so well; maybe not seen it in the scores. What kind of brought them both together today?

MARINA ALEX: Been working really hard in this off-season and still into season with my coach. I have a performance coach as well, and just trying to do a little deep dive into what I'm actually doing on the golf course in terms of what clubs I'm hitting. Where are any distances or my areas of weakness that need improvement and really trying to practice those.

Hit more shots. Not just be on the range and just hitting for the sake of hitting. Just trying to really emulate how to play out here in my practice. I think I've really lacked that. As much as the technical has improved, I feel like I haven't quite put together the scoring and the performance.

So I worked really hard on that and I'm still going to keep doing that in my off weeks. I hope that that will carry into the rest of this year and obviously competition does a lot of the work for you.

It's good to work on those things.