An eight week break isn’t what Marina Alex wanted, especially given how she finished last season.
It was just four months ago that Alex had her breakthrough moment on the LPGA Tour when she captured the Cambia Portland Classic for her first career win. She rode that momentum into the season’s closing stretch and finished inside the top 5 in two of her last three events of the year, including a runner-up finish in Shanghai. Then, it was time to call it quits. For eight weeks. Alex didn't want the season to end.
“I’m hoping that this time off didn’t slow me down and I can keep going, pick up where I left off,” Alex said during a conference call Thursday.
Now with just one more week to go, Alex is getting closer to returning to action. She’ll tee it up at the inaugural Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, exclusive to winners on the LPGA Tour in 2017 and 2018. Alex’s maiden victory earned her one of the coveted spots in the field and a chance to return to competitive play three weeks earlier than the first full-field event of 2019.
“I’m really going to grind and make sure I’m ready to play the best that I can to start out the year,” said the fifth-ranked American in the world. “That for me is going to be the number one priority.”
That focus will be tested immediately.
What makes the new season opening event unique is the opportunity to play alongside celebrities while also competing in an official 72-hole stroke play event. It’s a challenge not many on the LPGA Tour have experienced before. Whether Alex is paired with Larry the Cable Guy or Roger Clemens, she’s confident she’ll be able to adapt to how much her partner wants to engage.
“I can sense that pretty quickly and then adjust accordingly,” Alex said, relying on her pro-am experiences. “It will be a lot of fun to play with some people I’ll probably not have an opportunity to play with in a competition setting again. I’m really excited.”
The MLB’s John Smoltz and Terry Francona are two of the players Alex could play with at Tranquilo Golf Course at Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club Orlando. They were both on the conference call along with Alex on Thursday.
Smoltz is a likely favorite in the celebrity competition, which is a modified Stableford scoring format with a purse of $500,000. Smoltz is self-taught and never had a lesson, but he’s learned from the game’s greats. In 2003, Smoltz played a round with Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam at Isleworth Country Club in what was a tune-up for Sorenstam ahead of her PGA Tour debut. Smoltz was a sponge.
“I was enamored with the mechanics of [her] swing and how straight and how accurate,” Smoltz marveled about Sorenstam. “There’s always an ability to watch different professionals and pick up things that you can apply for yourself.”
Those observations have paid off for Smoltz as he’s applied those lessons to his own game. The former pitcher and eight-time MLB All-Star qualified for the 2018 U.S. Senior Open at the Broadmoor, but missed the cut. In April, he’s planning to compete in the PGA Tour Champions’ Mitsubishi Electric Classic.
“Golf is the greatest challenge in the world, between your mind, body and nobody else,” Smoltz said. “I can get bailed out as a pitcher by my teammates. You don’t get bailed out in golf.”
Francona doesn’t take golf as seriously as Smoltz, but deals with similar mental hurdles. The Cleveland Indians Manager is used to competing in front of 40,000 screaming fans in a ballpark, but is overwhelmed at the idea of hitting a tee shot in front of a group of fans.
“If you think it takes courage to do baseball, it takes a ton of courage to get on that golf course,” Francona explained. “There might be 200 people standing there and you can barely get the club back. It’s a whole different world for a guy like me.”
Alex could share a tip or two on how to manage the nerves when everyone is watching. She’s learned to win on golf’s biggest stage. And while it’s been nearly two months since she last competed on Tour, it’s hard to imagine her game isn’t right where she left it – at the top of the world.
“Luckily, the off-season hasn’t been that long,” Alex said. “I’m hoping that I can start the week at Diamond where I left off at the end of the year.”
Luckily, she has only one more week to find out.
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