LPGA Tour star Marina Alex has retired from the professional game.
The American played her final round in Sunday’s season closer, the CME Group Tour Championship at Florida’s Tiburon Golf Club, joining Lexi Thompson and Ally Ewing, who each also made their farewell appearances at the event.
Alex’s decision to draw a line under her professional career came as something of a surprise, particularly given some strong recent form including T6 in last month’s Maybank Championship, runner-up at the Toto Japan Classic in early November and T12 in her final event.
However, she insisted it was the right time to call it a day. After the event, she said: “It's always hard to say goodbye. 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. So we're about to enter a new world of a new identity. It's great, but change is never easy.”
Like Thompson, who has said she may tee it up again in the future, Alex isn’t quite closing the door on a possible return to action at some point. She added: “Never say never. If there is an opportunity to try and qualify for a US Open or play a US Open I probably will, but as far as playing out here, you know, this chapter has closed.”
Alex also revealed that she came close to calling time on her career a year ago. “I'm proud of sticking it out probably maybe a little bit longer than I mentally wanted to if I'm being honest, she said. “I was really down in the dumps at the end of last year and I almost contemplated not coming back.”
She then admitted that her decision to continue had paid off given her solid form: “Golf doesn't owe you anything,” she added. “To be able to at least get a little bit of feeling like it's the best golf I've ever played and I'm leaving with that, I'm really thankful for it.”
The 34-year-old left her amateur career behind in 2012, initially joining the Symetra Tour before earning her LPGA Tour card for the 2014 season.
Since then, she has won twice on the circuit, first at the 2018 Cambia Portland Classic and then at the 2022 Palos Verdes Championship. She also recorded a best finish in a Major of T9 at the 2014 Women’s Open and played for the US team at the 2019 Solheim Cup.
While Alex, Thompson and Ewing chose the final event of the LPGA Tour season as the swansong to their full-time professional careers, another high-profile player who announced left the game this year two-time Major runner-up Amy Olson, who retired in April.
She hadn’t played since the 2023 US Women’s Open when she was seven months pregnant. In her statement to announce her decision, she described it as a “very extended maternity leave.”
