Marina Alex Of North Jersey Earns Full-time Lpga Card

Marina Alex of the North Jersey Country Club called it the happiest day of her golfing career. It happened on Sunday, October 20, when she walked off the course at the Symetra Tour Championship and secured a full-time LPGA card.

Alex played full-time on the Symetra Tour and made 14 consecutive cuts, earning $39,804 to place third on the tour. This came in a year when she had a T27 finish at LPGA Qualifying School last December that earned Category 17 status, allowing her to play in a limited number of LPGA Tour events.

In 2013, she played in four qualifiers and three LPGA events. She played on a sponsor’s exemption at the ShopRite LPGA Classic at Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club in Galloway and made $6,579. In 2014, she will be available to play in any LPGA event.

This week, she is featured on Golfweek.com, with a focus on financing a career in women’s professional golf.

HERE Is the Golfweek.com story entitled Marina Alex: An LPGA card and reality check

Alex was runner-up in the NJSGA Women’s Amateur at Rumson in 2005 to Kelly Cramp of Hopewell Valley and was also runner-up in the NJSGA Girls’ Junior in 2002 to Kate Durnan of Ridgewood.

For Wayne Hills High School, she was a two-time winner of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association champion and set a tournament standard with a 5-under par 32 to win one of them by a record eight shots.

Alex qualified for three USGA Junior Girls Championships.

In 2009, she qualified for the U.S. Women's Open at Saucon Valley Golf Club in Bethlehem, Pa., after finishing fourth at sectional qualifying at Neshanic Valley. She won medalist honors at local qualifying for the Open in Pinehurst.

She also earned an exemption to the U.S. Women's Amateur in St. Louis after qualifying for the U.S. Open and finished in a tie for second place in U.S. Amateur stroke play that summer.

Alex, who was selected First-Team All-American in 2012 and 2010 while playing for Vanderbilt University, was one of 76 players to advance to the final stage of Q-School last winter and was one of 35 LPGA Tour rookies for 2013.