When Bruce Springsteen sings about a Jersey Girl he paints a portrait of one tough woman who’s worked hard for everything she has. He very well might have been talking about Marina Alex, the pride of Wayne, N.J., just 20 miles from New York City’s Times Square and now, on her 124th try, an LPGA winner. The former Vanderbilt University star captured the Cambia Portland Classic on Sunday by four strokes over Georgia Hall, erasing a six-stroke deficit in the final round.
To those paying attention, the breakthrough win by Alex was not really a surprise. The 28-year-old has improved each of her six years on tour, this year finishing second at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup and third at the ShopRite Classic in her home state. She started and ended at Columbia Edgewater Country Club like a champ, opening with a 62 and closing with a 65 after a pair of 71s to be at 19-under par 269.
Hall, winner of the Ricoh Women’s British Open earlier this year, stumbled home with a 75 to be second at 273. Ayako Uehara was third at 275 with Minjee Lee at 277 and Megan Khang at 278. It was simply a dominating close by Alex, all the more impressive in that it was her first LPGA win.
“Not a lot of experience to draw on,” Alex said with a laugh when asked how she got it done on Sunday. “The first day I played so incredible, so I knew it was in there. I was nervous on Friday and Saturday and it was sort of nice to have a hole to dig myself out of. My goal was to shoot eight under and I was seven under. It was an incredible day. I’m very proud of myself.”
As well she should be. Alex started the final round six strokes behind Hall but closed the front nine with five consecutive birdies to turn in 30 and move two strokes ahead of Hall and four clear of Lee. Alex protected her lead brilliantly on the closing nine, making a 10-foot part save on No. 11 to maintain her momentum.
And when Hall birdied the 11th to pull within one stroke, Alex responded with a birdie on No. 12 to get her lead back to two strokes. After Hall bogeyed No. 14 to fall three back Alex immediately birdied No. 15 to pull four strokes ahead and that, pretty much, was that.
Alex had a rather special 15th club in Portland: Her caddie, Travis Wilson, won there last year toting for Stacy Lewis. But with Lewis on maternity leave in advance of her November due date, Wilson picked up Alex’s bag. Earlier this year, Wilson looped for his aunt, Tammie Green-Parker, in the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club, where she finished T-8 with a closing 67.
In this age of players hitting the ground running as teenagers, Alex is one of those who cut her teeth in college golf and slowly, through hard work, built her game on the LPGA tour. In that sense, she is a bit of a throwback player, getting her first win at 28 and perhaps positioning herself for even better days ahead. If she was feeling nerves down the stretch, she never showed it, a true sign of the maturity that comes from experience.
“I pretended all day that I was behind and had to play catch-up,” Alex said. “I didn’t know I had a four-stroke lead until No. 18 when I asked Travis where I stood.” Asked if her first win was all she dreamed it would be, Alex said: “Yeah, for sure. It’s been a lot of hard work. I learned that I can play with the best.”
Alex is the fist player from Vanderbilt to win on the LPGA and the eighth first-time winner on tour this year. In this age of young stars, Alex almost seems ancient. But Lewis is a good role model for her in that she played four years of college golf and got a relatively late start on the LPGA before becoming, for a couple of years, the best player in women’s golf.
Last year, Lewis came into the Cambia saying she would donate her earnings for the week to Houston hurricane relief and then went out an won for the first time in more than three years. This year there was more magic on the magnificent tree-lined fairways of Columbia Edgewater as Alex picked off her first LPGA victory. And she did it in a way that makes you think the best is yet to come for this Jersey Girl.
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