The LPGA Tour is having a mass exodus this year with a number of players retiring. 2024 has already seen the likes of Scotland’s Catriona Matthew, South Korea’s So Yeon Ryu, Angela Stanford, and a few other names have their final swing. The conclusion of the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship at Naples, Florida added one more name to the list- New Jersey’s Marina Alex.
Alex didn’t want to make a big deal of her retirement from the LPGA Tour. In fact, very few were aware of it before it was announced on Sunday’s NBC broadcast. Some of her close friends and family showed up in t-shirts featuring action shots of Marina throughout her Tour career in various stages of walk, swing, and putt. Once it was official, tributes poured in for the player who spent 11 years on the Tour.
With the CME Group Tour Championship as her last event, Alex officially stepped away as a full-time member of the LPGA Tour. And what a year it was. With back-to-back top-10 finishes in Asia and nearly collecting a third LPGA win at the TOTO Japan Classic, it seemed like Alex would head into the 2025 season with full force. But she had other plans.
“It’s always hard to say goodbye,” Alex shared. “I know this is what I want, and it’s the right decision for me right now. That doesn’t change the fact that this is a life that I built for the last 11 years out here, and golf has been my life since I’ve been a kid. We’re about to enter a new world of a new identity. It’s great, but change is never easy.”
