NAPLES — Marina Alex could not help herself. After all, the focus of this week’s CME Group Tour Championship centers around the record-breaking $4 million check for the winner of the final event of the 2024 LPGA season.
A check larger than all but two winners on the PGA Tour cashed this season.
So when Alex, a Palm Beach Gardens resident for the last decade, was asked what continues to motivate her, she did not hesitate.
“$4 million,” she said.
Then added “I’m kidding.”
But is she really?
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Marina Alex, 34, is more typical of the professional golfer not making millions shooting commercials or thinking about how many millions to drop on their next home.
Alex is 87th in the Women’s World Golf Rankings, up from her season low of 146 in March. Since joining the LPGA Tour in 2013, she never had cracked the top 25.
But she has made a nice living, earning $4.9 million in prize money in 12 seasons.
Which is about $1 million more than she could earn this week.
Alex got off to a good start Thursday with a 6-under 66 that put her in a tie for third entering Round 2. She bogeyed the second hole and finished with four birdies and an eagle on the par-5 17th, chipping in from 22 yards.
“It’s life changing,” Alex said about the purse. “I’ve been out here 11 years. I’ve won twice. I’ve had, (35) top 10s. I’ve made just shy $5 million in my whole career.
“So this would be almost everything I’ve ever earned in a decade in one week. Which, to put it that way, is absolutely life changing.”
So basically hitting the lottery?
“With a lot more work involved,” she said.
Even if Alex is runner-up she’d make $1 million, more than 20 percent of her career earnings. The last-place finisher gets $55,000.
“It’s what our players deserve,” LPGA Tour commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said.
Hones game playing with other pros at Dye Preserve
Alex grew up in New Jersey and moved to Florida after graduating from Vanderbilt. She made the wise business decision to settle in northern Palm Beach County and eventually playing out of The Dye Preserve and Turtle Creek Club.
“It’s been a great place to develop, not even just golf, but the rest of my team that’s there, both in season and off season,” Alex said.
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Playing out of Dye gives Alex the opportunity to sharpen her game against the best. The Jupiter-based club had six men and two women compete in the Paris Olympics last summer. The men represented 10 percent of the field.
Alex and Spanish Olympian Azahara Munoz have been longtime members. But she also has practiced with PGA Tour players Matthew Pavon and Taylor Pendrith.
Others from Dye in the Olympics were LPGA Tour player Gaby Lopez of Mexico, and from the PGA Tour, France’s Pavon, Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz, Sweden’s Alex Noren, Canada’s Corey Conners and Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira of Chile.
“I have been fortunate to play with some of the guys here and there,” Alex said. “It’s always circulating different pros every year.
“It’s a great spot, great facility, great golf course. So there are some great games out there.”
Deep dive into game leads to improvements
Alex won for the first time on the LPGA Tour in 2018 at the Cambia Portland Classic. He second victory came four years later at the Palos Verdes Championship.
She made some changes in 2024 after missing the CME a year ago and saw improvement with five top 10s and more than $625,000 in earnings.
Two strong weeks, runner-up at the Toto Japan Classic and T6 at the Maybank Championship in Malaysia, got her into the field of 60 for the season finale.
Alex and her coach, Claude Harmon, did a deep dive on her game following the 2023 season. And she got help from Nico Darras of Jupiter, who runs Golf Blueprint, a golf performance and research company.
“At the end of the season, we looked at statistically like how bad certain things were, things that were easy fixes,” Alex said. “We took a really hard look at where I was coming up short relative to the rest of the tour in strokes gained, and worked hard on that in the off-season.”
“All that hard work from last December up until this week, just still working on it, it’s really helped me.”
Alex had a rough two week stretch leading into the CME, missing the cut in Hawaii and at The Annika at Pelican Golf Club. She was in a “complete daze” arriving in Hawaii from Japan and welcomed the rest after missing the cut. She still was recovering at The Annika.
“I was exhausted going into the week after Japan, and then tired even still last week, a lot of time changes and all over the place,” she said. “Now I’ve been in Florida two weeks. I kind of feel a little bit more settled back on track.”
Although Tiburon doesn’t exactly suit her game — “It probably favors a longer hitter,” she said — she got off to a solid start Thursday.
“It’s going to get harder,” Alex said. “I think I just need to be patient with myself, understand that I’ve been out here a long time now. Pick and choose the battles. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: LPGA CME Group Tour Championship $4M winner’s check “life changing”
