Proud New Jersey native Marina Alex was given the honor of hitting the first tee shot of the 69th KPMG Women’s PGA Championship on Thursday at Baltusrol Golf Club. Alex hails from Wayne, N.J., which is not too far from the Lower Course in Springfield, so the opportunity to share such a special moment with her friends, family and hometown crowd is something that she will never forget. It was also a perfect wrap-up to what’s been dubbed the “Year of Women’s Golf in New Jersey” as the LPGA Tour has played four events in the Garden State since the middle of May.
“It's pretty cool. Will never get that opportunity again. Big thanks to the PGA of America for doing that. It's really close to home. Unbelievable golf course. It’s a pretty special thing,” said Alex. “There's a ton of amazing venues here. We saw that at Liberty. We've been at Upper Montclair, we've played Mountain Ridge in the past, playing here this week at Baltusrol. There's a lot of championship golf.
“It's good to see that we're getting to play these venues, and hopefully we can continue to play. That's just kind of like, I would say, just scratching the surface on some really good golf here.”
While the moment on No. 1 was special, the fierce competitor was more focused on carding a strong opening round at the recently restored Lower Course, a tall order considering the tough conditions that were only made more difficult by the Thursday morning drizzle. The two-time LPGA Tour winner scraped together a 2-over 73 in the first round, making four bogeys and two birdies on holes 7 and 12. The score has her just inside the top-70, where she’ll need to stay tomorrow if she wants to play the weekend.
“It was an early tough morning. The conditions have been really difficult all day. Kind of more focused on that than necessarily like the first tee shot here at a major and in my home state,” Alex said. “I think I was just trying to get a good round under my belt, which was harder than anticipated. It's a very intimidating golf course. There's really not a lot of margin for error out here. You're one foot in the rough, you can get a terrible lie and then you have a lot of things to contend with. The green complexes are hard.
“It's a privilege to be playing out here. It really is a great golf course. It is unlike anything else, playing so close to where I grew up.”
)
)
)
)
