NAPLES, Fla. — Marina Alex didn’t want much to be made of her retirement from the LPGA Tour. Few were aware it was even happening before it was announced on Sunday’s NBC broadcast that the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship would be Marina’s last one as a full-time member of the LPGA Tour.

Her close friends and family knew, with many of them showing up in t-shirts featuring action shots of Marina throughout her Tour career in various stages of walk, swing and putt. Her fellow players knew, with athletes like Mel Reid, who was working as a Golf Channel analyst this week in Naples, Fla., making sure to be around when Marina finished the 18th so she could say congratulations on a great career.

However, the rest of the golf world may not have been aware of her intentions to step away from the game this week in Naples, Fla., particularly considering how well Marina has been playing as of late. She had earned back-to-back top-10 finishes in Asia, nearly collecting a third career Tour title at the TOTO Japan Classic, and it seemed like that uptick was enough to keep Marina going and looking ahead to the 2025 season.

But she knew it was time to step away and forge a new path after this year wrapped up, and even though she originally wanted to quietly leave the game, Marina took advantage of the opportunity she had at the season-ending event to bid farewell to her life on Tour, sharing the moment with so many of those who have been there for her during her time as a professional athlete.

“The difficulty with that is I wanted to tell the people out here that I've known for so long that I'm not going to be back,” said Alex. “I have some unbelievable friendships. I think there is an unwritten bond so many of us have out here through traveling and the hardship, the good and the bad.

“I don't want to whine and say this life is terrible. It's amazing, and we know that. But it's challenging. It's hard. We all kind of share that struggle. For all of us who have known each other for an extended period, there are a lot of intertwined bonds and relationships. I wanted to tell them all in person that this was going to be the end.”

And it was a heck of a way for Marina to conclude her career, carding a 6-under 66 on day four of the CME Group Tour Championship to finish in a tie for 12th at Tiburón Golf Club and go out on a high note in front of the people that she loves and cherishes the most.

“Friends and family, my childhood coaches, my godfather who was my putting coach for the longest time, the head pro from my home club in New Jersey who also lives in Florida now, they've seen the beginning and now the end. It's kind of sweet,” said a choked-up Marina after she finished her round. “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. We're about to enter a new world of a new identity. It's great, but change is never easy.”

Marina Alex of the United States poses with friends and family after finishing on the 18th green and retiring during the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship 2024 at Tiburon Golf Club on November 24, 2024 in Naples, Florida.

Marina accomplished more than many have in her time as an LPGA Tour member. She won two times, capturing what’s now known as the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship in 2022 and winning the Portland Classic before that in 2018. She got to represent her country as a member of the 2019 U.S. Solheim Cup Team, earning two points for the Red, White and Blue in her first and only appearance in the biennial team event. She even made over $5 million in career earnings during her time on Tour, $719,855 of which she collected during the 2024 season alone.

But all of those accolades aren’t what she is most proud of after her final walk down the fairways of the LPGA Tour.

“I'm proud of sticking it out probably maybe a little bit longer than I mentally wanted to if I'm being honest,” Marina shared. “I was really down in the dumps at the end of last year, and I almost contemplated not coming back. I wanted to come back because it's really odd. There is one triggering moment. It's not triggering in a bad way. Just the moment when Suzann (Pettersen) retired at Solheim. I was on the opposite side of that. I thought that was one of the most incredible things I've seen from a player.

“I always wanted, in some fashion, that for myself. You never are going to get that fairytale experience, win, walk away. Japan was pretty close. Had that been a different circumstance, I don't know what that would've led to. But I'm so happy for the last month of golf. Golf doesn't owe you anything. 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.”

As far as what’s next goes, Marina is just letting the path wind where it may, content to put one foot in front of the other for the time being while she reflects on what has happened in her last decade-plus of professional golf. A lot of rest and relaxation are on the docket, and maybe some more celebrations alongside her family and friends from her various walks of life.

For now, though, Marina is excited to close this chapter and begin a new one, one that has had its highs and lows, that has seen its triumphs and tribulations. Some athletes wind up missing the game they once played, regaling those around them about this or that shot they hit to win whatever tournament or reminiscing about when they reached the pinnacle of their sport.

That might happen to Marina down the line, but at this moment, she is ready to lay down the stress and difficulties of high-level athletics and lean into the peace of retirement, content to now just be Marina Alex, not Marina Alex, the professional golfer.

“Right now, I'm just really ready to rest my brain and mostly my heart,” she said. “This is a hard job emotionally, and I'm finally ready to hang that up and not live and die by the golf course. I'm really looking forward to that.”

Marina Alex Retires, Plays Final LPGA Tour Round at CME Group Tour Championship

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