Fairway Rollin' - The Challenges of the LPGA With Marina Alex

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

House and Hubbard are joined by special guest LPGA pro Marina Alex to talk the very latest in the world of ladies golf. They start with Alex's origins in golf as an early college phenom and jumping to the pros (00:58). They also discuss the camaraderie in the LPGA as well as the struggles of maintaining one's tour card at such a high level (21:46). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Guest: Marina Alex Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf podcast. Unlike any other, this is Fairway. Rolf Podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network, a very special LPGA major edition of Fairway, Roland Bertie buddies, par-saving pals. We have none other than LPGA tour player. Marina Alex is on the line. We had her for a full.

hour. Let's just walk over to the T, throw three pegs in the ground. It's me and Nate and Marina on a three ball. Let's get this thing going with Marina Alex. All right, my birdie buddies, my par saving pals. We have a very special edition of Fareway. Rule in this week with a very special guest. You know, Nate and I have been talking since the restart of the PGA tour back in June about our own interest in the LPGA, its restart, and how the ladies tour has been handling its quote-unquote bubble. And there's been an incredible array of outcomes on the LPGA. So we had to get our own LPGA correspondent on the ground

to go along with Nate, our PGA tour correspondent on the ground. And on today's show, we are so happy to have here, Marina Alex, M.A. What's Happening? Hey, guys, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to do this with you. Let's start with something simple. What's your nickname? What do you go by? I don't really, I have, I do have a few. Most people call me Marina. That's not a nickname. No, a couple girls call me Alex, my last name. And then I do have one nickname from one of my good friends on tour. She calls me Meatball. Oh, no, we're going with that.

That's the one. I'm from Jersey, and she thinks that I am on the Jersey shore. So, yeah, meatball. And I know because of the little bit of research that we did, we're going to talk about you coming from Jersey and some of your Jersey roots. But I also know that you have a particular interest in the kitchen. You've got a whole food game going, Marina, Alex. A little, a little bit. I wouldn't say it's a huge array of food game, but I love it.

Yeah, it's food game. So, I mean, it's going to be meatball. We're going to mix it up. We'll try and be... Yeah, it's fine. So I want to talk a little bit about kind of your journey because it's a very interesting one. It's a non-traditional one.

And I just want to sort of try and get from point A, which is Wayne, New Jersey, to point B, which is right now we're taping, you are in Jupiter or in Nashville? Palm Beach Gardens. Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. And in between there, stop at Vanderbilt University and the Mighty, Mighty SEC, how's that all coming together? So I know there's golf and your family. That's always where it starts, right?

My dad plays. He's still playing a little bit competitively. He played a ton of amateur events when I was a kid in the Met section. And so New Jersey events, Met Section events, pretty solid amateur player in the area. And he got my brother and I into playing. We would play a ton of golf with, like, the head furrow at the golf course that my dad joined when I think I played public golf course most of my junior career. And then when I got into high school, my brother is four years younger than me. My dad was like, I think we got to do it.

We got to join a place. Like we can't keep going to the local, say, county golf course. Just not going to happen. So joined a course in my hometown of Wayne, New Jersey called North Jersey Country Club. Became friendly with the head pro there. My dad did. And I played a lot with him and his assistants when I was just in high school. So I had like a ton of playing experience with really good golfers,

not necessarily girls my own age, because it was just so hard in New Jersey. there's not many players. So you would only see people at a high school state championship or a New Jersey state championship, whether it's girls amateur or women's amateur. But to play with girls my own age on a daily basis, it just didn't happen. Like there's not enough of us.

So I ended up playing with a lot of guys, which is fun. And so how did you know how you were developing through high school? Like when did you step back and go, I'm really good? Probably I would say starting my, second year of high school, I ended up playing a lot more AJGA events. So those are national junior golf tournaments. And I was playing against girls that were, you know, California, Florida, warmer climates, Texas. And I was just getting my ass handed to me. Are we allowed to? Yes. In fact, it's encouraged. We have the E. We are very explicit on this podcast.

Yeah. So, I mean, I was just getting drummed in junior golf tournaments like nationally. And when you come from a small pool in the Northeast, you know, you don't really necessarily know how you stack up. Why'd you keep going back? I don't know. My dad, he was just like, keep going, keep trying. But you learn at every stage. So it was just kind of like a learning experience. I'm a pretty observant person.

Like I can tell right away if someone is better than me, I'm kind of just like, okay, I can maybe learn a thing or two from just watching. So I think that that's probably been a skill set of mine, you know, from a junior all even now. I was going to say, you still do that today? Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's even more, I think, cool and knowledgeable at a high level because you're playing with so many good players. There's definitely things you can pick up from other people that probably do things a little bit better than you do. And maybe vice versa. I may do things better than some, but we can all kind of learn from each other just from afar.

like you don't really need to ask that many questions. If you've got a good eye for golf playing my whole life, like I can kind of see what things people do well and what they don't. And I can, you know, just teach myself some things here and there. But I think that I just had a grind through those like AJGA days and try to get recruited by anyone for college golf. It was, I honestly didn't expect to go to a very good school. just because, you know, I hadn't won any national level junior golf tournaments.

So I just was like, I don't know why anyone would recruit me. How'd they find you? Yeah, it's actually a pretty cool story. So my dad plays, well, he used to play when we lived in New Jersey. It's called the Winter League. It's like this crazy. It's for the golf crazies. So they play every Thursday they played in the off month.

So it starts in October. it ends like in February or March and they play every week in the winter like that's their deal and they go to random courses mostly South Jersey and they would play like the greens would be frozen and the golf course would be like it was just anyway there was a guy that my dad knew um played a lot of golf with that was friends with the coach at Arizona at the time so this guy was like oh let me reach out to the Arizona coach and tell him about your daughter and all this so the coach at that time His name was Greg Allen. He had coached Natalie Golbis and Loreno Ochoa when they came through at U of A. And he took the job at Vanderbilt kind of midway through, I think, my high school days.

So he started recruiting me once he got over to Vandy. And I went and took a visit and I love the school. And that was kind of it. I mean, I definitely think he took a bit of a chance on recruiting me. But it was a good fit for me. And after a couple months of being there, I was really starting to, like, progress and just a whole year of being able to practice in the winter like made a huge deal for me in my game. I didn't have that up until I got to college. It was a good eye of Coach Allen because it only took you two years, if that, and you won the SEC championship. Yeah, I think I fell into like a good circumstance there. I was able to start and get on like a consistent and starting roster and play and just get better my first year that I was in school.

And then from there, that kind of took off more into my sophomore year, which was great. And then I kind of hit a little bit of a low after that. It's hard to deal with things like if you've never been in those positions. You know, I think, and if you could talk to any golfer, maybe with the exception of like, Tiger, I think people struggle with the success and like how to maintain their expectations and all of that because you have ups and downs in golf. Like, it's not like you're going to play great all the time. And it's like learning how to deal with the times that you're not playing great

and know that it's coming back, you know? And what did that feel like in the moment? What did that feel like to you? Expectations that you have to go out and win every tournament? That and then as soon as you have a couple bad outs, you know, your couple high scores or a couple bad tournaments, you're like, oh my God, am I done? Like, am I never going to play good golf again?

That's like a young, immature, not, not understanding it, you know? Like, that's how I had felt in college because I just didn't know any better, really. How did you get through that? We had sports psychs that we would talk to and, you know, kind of just, I think also just having colleges a bit of a distraction itself is helpful. You know, you go out, you have friends, you have school to worry about, you're trying to be social. You know, it's not totally all about golf. So I think over time it kind of just worked itself out. But as soon as you kind of give up on the, you know what, I don't, I don't need to win every week or I don't need to be in contention every week. It's hard to do. You kind of just take some of that pressure off

yourself and then you start playing better again, which is like weird. It's very counterintuitive. It doesn't seem to make sense. And, you know, to be fair, you did make first team All-American twice over the four years and your senior year, you did finish runner-up again in the SEC championship. So that's pretty good college resume. Yeah, it was pretty good. And then it didn't take you very long. You graduated what year? I graduated in May of 2012 and played some Symmetra tour that summer.

I don't know how it works now, but we were lucky. They would reserve spots in the field for, I think it was like the top three or four in the college amateur rankings. And you could play as a pro using that category. So myself and a couple other girls were able to start right away that summer playing. Sumatra and I had a couple good showings that kind of helped me bypass, I think, one stage of Q school, went to second, went to third, and I was kind of there at third stage to get a full tour card and I just choked my ass off the last like two holes and I'll never forget it. My dad was counting for me and I missed two putts on 17 and 18. Both of them had to

have been inside four feet. Like one, both pervertie. and ended up not getting my card. I want to say it was by two spots. Like if I had made those, would have been in a playoff. And I was devastated. What's going on in your head? What was going on in your head?

I don't know. So much nerves. Like it's a lot on the line. Yeah. You know, a lot on the line. A lot of nerves. And probably a lot of bad technique in the sense that, you know, I don't think at that time I would give myself a good

score as a putter in general. And so not really understanding what I was doing, not having a good mental game plan in those instances, and just totally letting the emotions of what's going on, like overtake. You know, that's a detriment. Like, it's really hard to perform at that point. So that was a huge learning experience for me. But in overall, in a good way, just not in the moment. Did you know right afterwards, here's what I'm going to do better next time? Or did it take you a while to sort of work through that? No, I think it took me a while to get over the initial, like, jarring, feeling of that because you feel like I'm a choker. Like, maybe I don't have that in me. You know, maybe that is who I am and like maybe I'm not as good or, you know, there's a lot of self-questioning at that point, a lot of doubt. Like, oh, can I do this? But the more you put yourself in those circles, I think you just learn how to handle your internal mind better, you know, what's going on in between your

two ears and in the sense of like not letting those self-doubt type of thoughts and like the things you think about yourself or the thing or the worst case scenarios, like you try not to let them overtake, you know, you because it just creates so much energy in your body and it's not good energy by any means. When did you know you were good enough? I think by kind of by chance, you know, so I played Symmetra and I played well out there, but it felt comfortable. It felt like similar to college in terms of the course setup, the course difficulty. A lot of girls I had played with in college were playing out there. So it didn't really seem totally like out of my realm. And I had a super solid year. And that year I had a

couple LPJ starts and I missed those cuts. It was like a mental thing for me. I got to those LPJ events and I get pressure, expectation, like you know that the players are better and I just I felt like I was just so nervous that I just couldn't really compete. Didn't make any cuts at that point. But I got my tour card from Symmetra and I started the 2014 season like with full status out there. So I'm like, okay, I've got, you know, a year to get, figure this out. And man, and it was, was so tough. I missed a million cuts, like a million, to start the first half of the year. And I struggled with caddies and like all that stuff, just figuring out routine, travel. And I was like, man, maybe this is just not going to happen for me, you know? And I had one really solid week at a Canadian

tournament. I think it was the man you life at the time. I don't think it's on our schedule anymore. And it happened that that event was a qualifier for the British Open. So we have one domestic tournament prior to the British, and they'll designate the 36 holes as a qualifier to get into the British. And it's usually five spots. So anyone who's not previously qualified, those top five people at the end of 36 holes. That's like how Sophia Popoff got in this year. 100%.

Exactly same way. So I ended up qualifying that way. And I got into the British Open, which was like a huge deal. I just had, it was the best tournament in Canada that had like of the season. I think I ended up after 72 holes finishing like 17th or 18th, which was like a huge confidence boost for me. And I went to the British. We played Burkdale. Oh, wow.

Yeah, it was cool. And I ended up finishing eighth or ninth. And that was just kind of like, it came out of nowhere. But it helped me so much. You know, I got into other events. I got into like limited field things where I didn't have to worry about making cuts. Because for me, I don't know, it was just like the mental thing of making cuts was hard. It was so different.

You're not used to that in college. And it was, it came easy on Symmetra. And it was not coming easy on the LPGA just because the competition is way more intense at that level. So playing some of those events that had no cut at the end of the year just helped me get into a routine of like playing 72 whole tournament and like feeling a little bit more comfortable and not so edgy about having to have two good days, you know, to make a cut and all that. So I think all of that kind of just helped me along my path, you know, for the next several years of playing on tour. And I, you know, I found a great coach and like, oh, and a good trainer and like all of these things kind of fall in line to like, like letting you get better and better and better. And then that just builds your mental confidence too.

To be fair, like the timeline here is you were in college until 2012 and then you were playing on the LPGA tour in 2013. Like it's a pretty successful timeline. It is a successful timeline. I just think that my ability to feel comfortable out there and my ability to contend and feel like I am like a player out there took me years like years to figure out. I wouldn't say it was probably until 2017 and into 2018 that I really was like,

okay, I'm like getting the hang of this. My goals have shifted and now I'm thinking about winning, not the cut. Yeah, not not the cut. Not keeping my car, not doing this, not doing that. You know, that was like for years. That's, you know, but that's what you think that you're at in terms of a skill set level. You know, it's very much a mindset and a confidence thing. If that's what you really feel, you know, that's ultimately where you're going to hang in terms of your outcomes and your results. Because if that's what you're focusing on, it's likely you're not going to just break through that. You know, you've got to focus higher. It's just hard to get there if you're, I mean, I'm a pretty self-aware person. So like, I'm not going to fill myself up with fake bullshit confidence.

If I'm like, dude, my game sucks. Like, I'm not going to go out there and pretend that like I'm like a world beater when I'm struggling with this, that, and the other thing, like, I'm a pretty pragmatic person in that sense, good and bad. Like, that can, sometimes you need that fake, you know, self-confidence that you just build yourself up and you're like, dude, I'm awesome. I'm going to, I'm going to go out there and kill it. But if you can't buy into that, you know, you got to figure out how to actually organically create it. And that just took a lot of time. And did you, did you have to evolve? I mean, we talked a lot about how you've evolved mentally. You're 33rd in the world on Rolex rankings, right now. So you've come a long way, obviously, mentally. What did you do physically during that

time to evolve your game? You know, started with a really good change in my instructor. There was a guy out here. He's not really traveling much anymore. He's from Australia. And he had worked a long time with Kari Webb. He worked with Mo Martin, British Open Champ. He still does. A couple of girls that are some top Korean players. And I met him when he kind of my first or second year out there, he was taking a couple lessons while he was out traveling to these tournaments. And it just made sense. Like, I will never forget the first lesson I had with him. I was just like in the absolute shit. You know, I just couldn't figure it out. And he was pinpointed immediately like what needed work. And it was like, it was a pretty big change. But he was like, if you

you think you want to get better out here and want to just not be scraping by to keep your card. Like, you need to change this. Like, and it's going to take time, but you have, you have to do it. And I respected that he was very honest with me in the first lesson and was like, I'll take you on if you want to do this, but it's going to be not that simple. And so I stuck with it, you know, saw him when I could, made trips to Australia, like did all this work to, um, to kind of get my swing in a place that was more repeatable. And like, at a place that I didn't need constant lessons and constant supervision. And I could kind of understand what I was doing wrong when I was doing it so that I could correct myself. I think

that's a huge deal playing out there. You're playing every single week. I mean, you've got to be able to fix stuff that goes wrong along the way. Otherwise, you get into these ruts and then it's miscut after miscut and it's like you don't want that. It, that plays with you mentally too. So that was a huge change. And then I found an awesome trainer down here in Jupiter. I work out at Joey D's with Colby Wayne, and he works out with a ton of PGA and LPGA players. And I think the combination of that just really got me into a better place. You know, I felt like it wasn't so exhausting playing so many weeks in a row, mentally and physically. And that's a big deal.

Because you were able to build up the physical stamina for it. Yeah, it kind of oddly goes hand in hand. And I just didn't really recognize how important that is, too, because if you're wearing yourself out, physically. Mentally, you got to work that much harder to keep yourself, you know, like pushing yourself through those points where like, I'm so tired. I don't want to do anything. Well, this is a good segue, right? Because one of the things I wanted to make sure we talked about was kind of the camaraderie on the LPGA tour and like the support network that seems, I'm just an outsider. I'm just a person that likes watching golf. I don't know anything about the

inside in the bubble, you know, so to speak of the LPGA. And I know you have lifelong relationships, you know, your roommate, Jenny Saw, is on tour now. No, she's not, she was for a long time. And I think it's been four or five years. She's retired now. And she's working out here in Jupiter at a really nice golf course. So she's their membership director. And, oh, house, how so we have a chance. we might be able to get on. Yeah, you need an in. We do need an in. Yeah.

Oh, Die Preserve. We have the hookup. We're talking to a hookup right now. And you also went to college with Jackie Congolino. Yeah. The Jack Hammer. Yeah. She's just a, she's a treasure of a human being, man.

Well, that's, I'm interested in like that camaraderie aspect of it and the support because one of the things that we see, we see it on both tours. but especially maybe just since this restart, it feels like it's been more prominent, how everybody's really celebrating the wins each week. The champagne spring. Yes, exactly. Yeah, dude, I actually, full disclosure, I haven't sat and watched an LPGA event in ages.

And I watched every day last week because Mel is a really good friend of mine. And I missed, I think, the Saturday round. I don't know what I was doing. I wasn't able to catch a lot of it. But I actually watched. watched all of Sunday, which was like hard because the coverage is a little questionable. But I just wanted to see, you know, Mel do it. I mean, Portland was like, like, I think I guess, a little bit of a disappointment for her. She was in contention. I mean, she didn't play bad,

but I obviously she would have liked a different outcome. I was pulling for her so hard. And I played a ton with her in the lockdown. Me, her and Carrey Webb were playing a ton of golf together. So to see her, you know, out there playing great. And Webby and I were texting each other a bunch while she was playing. And it was just really great to watch her. And that celebration was like so deserved. I mean, that girl is the best and like so many people love hanging out with her. So the champagne sprays, like none of that was bullshit. Like anyone that was out there on 18 celebrating with her, like absolutely the most genuine celebration. So you are not playing.

You're watching golf right now. I'm watching golf too. And so talk to us, talk to us about the injury and how you're thinking about getting through it. Honestly, it hasn't been that big of a deal this week because it's a major, it's starting and it hasn't been great. I think it's been on and off reoccurring. Like I've had some weird bouts with my back, my lower back.

for a few years now. And up until this point, I'd only had to withdraw one time in my career. And that was last year in April. I was just, I couldn't do it. I had to take this week off in L.A., but I was quick, like, right back to it the following week in San Francisco. You know, my PTs out there got me straight straightened out and I was able to play. And I was pretty good for the most of the year and played a couple tournaments, probably not at 100%,

but never to a point where I didn't think I could. tee it up. I mean, it was, you know, we didn't play any golf for five months, which I thought was going to be awesome for me physically. And I don't necessarily know if that's the case because you walk so much, you swing so much. You're just used to that kind of, I guess, physical exercise that you just can't really replicate in your house. In your house or a workout. It's like every time I go practice, I'm taking a cart because it's a million degrees in Florida. And like, I'm not interested in walking if I don't have to. And so when I got back out to play and the restart,

I think my body was a little like, whoa, a lot's going on here that you haven't been doing for so long. And I just started at the British and everything kind of just slowly for like a few weeks just wasn't getting better and better even with PT. Like it didn't matter. I was just kind of slowly on a decline. And I pushed myself through A&A because it was a major. I don't know if that was a good.

good thing or a bad thing. And I woke up on Monday to go to Portland. I was like, I can't go. Like, I just can't do it. And I flew home. And that killed because I mean, I love Portland, obviously. Like, my one win is there. It's where you won. That's right. Yeah, that was the last thing I wanted to do. But I was also like, I don't know if I'm hurting myself further, you know? Right. And I came home. Our tour doctor got me in to get an MRI, just to figure everything out. And I actually wasn't in a good place. So not playing that week was necessary. In my mind, I'm like, okay, I'll be ready to go, you know, in a couple weeks.

And no, I just think my expectation or the reality of my situation I just hadn't had come to terms with yet. And it sucks. Like, I would love to be playing this week. Aronimic looks sick. So this week has been a bummer. And not that the other two aren't, but missing majors is hard. Can you see light at the end of the tunnel? Do you know what you have to do to get back?

Yeah, I'm doing it. You know, some PT. I've been on pretty good drugs, like anti-inflammatories, but we're going on a month now of that. And I don't necessarily know if that's like what I want, you know, long term. Yeah. Is it something that might require a swing change? that's the other thing that I got to look into and I think it might I think I need to look at how

well definitely how I train like I got to probably modify some things just for the sake of my back and putting kind of pressure on my disc that I can't be doing like I used to which sucks but it'll it'll be okay I think Colby is a great trainer so like we'll work through that and it'll be fine but yeah definitely probably need to look at some swing changes and that's going to be hard because my coach is far away. So I got to figure out how I'm going to figure that out. Well, you mentioned this week is the KPMGPGA championship. We've had now eight events since the LPGA restart.

So the LPGA restart kicked off right at the end of July, the beginning of August. And there's been a really diverse array of winners that we have a couple OGs and then some, some real newcomers and especially you mentioned this this week as a major we've had two majors already on the LPGA tour and two like crazy long shot winners like you know so sophia popoff is like straight out of nowhere uh in terms of a win but i think a lot of things you know with how COVID has been some countries have had crazy travel restrictions i know a lot of girls have elected internationally to not come which is understand understandable. And the girls that are from Korea, like the KLPJ, the Korean tour has been kind of going pretty good since I would say May. So, you know, that's an easier avenue for some players to just play out there right now instead of traveling back and forth. I think they still have like mandatory two-week hotel quarantines when they return home. It's a lot. Like if you come here, you're here, you know. It's hard for players to go back home and back and forth.

So I think there's been, our fields have been all over the map, kind of, in that sense. Like, we're just missing some players just because it's not able to happen. But that's afforded other girls' opportunities to compete on the LPGA. And then you see, like, a really cool story like Sophia's mainly got into marathon and was able to qualify through that. And then win a British Open. I mean, if we're in a normal year, like, I don't know exactly if that's like, what ends up happening, but it happened. It's awesome. So that was one of the stories that really

penetrated through into sort of broader sports media. We heard you earlier softly allude to some criticism of the way the product is presented on TV since you've been stuck at home watching it. Talk to us about how it feels to watch the game. Is the game presented well? Is there more that can be done to break it through? Yeah, talk about that. I don't think we see enough of, us, you know, we, and I don't know if that's a lack of cameras, lack of money, lack of, I guess, resources to see more shots on TV. It was weird. I saw a lot of shots on Thursday and Friday of various groups. And then when we got to the Sunday coverage, it was like they only had two groups on TV. And it's like, surely there are other things that we can see in between.

I don't know why that is. I really don't. It frustrates me because people, get bored and they turn it off because you're just not getting enough goal. There is big variance in the presentation. Like the ANA has historically been well presented and I thought it was very well presented this year as well. And I'm very much looking forward to the PGA championship because I can't wait to see Aronimink under these conditions. I think it'll be interesting.

I mean, they played the BMW there, the men's correct? maybe 2018. Yes, exactly right. But it was soft. Now it's not soft at all. No, and it's interesting. It's a little bit later in the year. It's probably going to be cold.

Like, I can't imagine it's going to be that warm in Philly right now. So I think it'll be tough. Like, I don't foresee them blowing that out of the water like the way A&A got. You know, there was a lot of low scores at A&A. Well, on this idea of sort of greater awareness, greater interest, one of the things that I was curious to kind of get the insider perspective on is the heightened interest in golf as a fantasy and gambling kind of opportunity. Lots and lots and lots of folks since the PGA tour restart have jumped into the daily fantasy games, the fantasy leagues,

and also, you know, the ability to just look at a matchup and put $10 down or something. I think it's great. It's happening on the LPGA side as well, although not as well developed yet. I just think that there are some things. TV is one. You need people tuning in to watch to even be remotely interested in wanting to put bets on girls. I mean, how are you going to put a bet on, and I'll just throw two people out. Like if you want to match up Nelly court of Brooke Henderson, like if you don't really follow the game that closely,

like how are you supposed to know anything unless you can like start to watch us on TV a little bit more and like get an understanding of the game. I mean, I guess you could look at what those like the matchup would be and like I don't know what kind of odds they're putting on one versus the other. But I mean, if you, if it's hard for us to, for people to want to get into betting if they don't necessarily know all of the girls out there, what their games like, you know, better stats. I mean, ultimately better stats lead to people wanting to place bets because I just think you could give them more accurate representation of like how a player would do on a certain course based on driving accuracy, distance, greening and regulations, putting like all that. If you're actually in a golf and you want to do that kind of betting,

like you need a little bit more data to make a good educated bet would be my guess. Yeah, and that data is all out there on the PGA tour side. All that strokes gain stuff. And we lack that. from a resource standpoint. I mean, we're dealing with, you know, they have Shotlink, which I don't know the cost of that. It's a multi-million dollar system that they have.

But even I've been told that over time, like live betting, Shotlink isn't even going to be good enough. Like it needs to be faster. It's not, right? It needs to be faster. It relies on the old volunteers to enter in the information and they always get it wrong. Yeah, and we rely on that too, but ours isn't even like real time. it's just like they go throughout the whole round and then they put it in at the end.

Right. So it's like what good is that doing us from a betting standpoint? Like you can't bet on anything except head-to-head matchups or like odds of a person finishing in the top five or the top 10 are winning. You know, we're still limited because we need way better data out there at like a rapid rate. Well, so that means we have to rely on anecdotal information from people who know what they're talking about like you. So talk a little bit about where we are right now in this post-annica order of, you know, there's a next generation of golfers who are coming up. There's a few golfers still in the sort of top 10, top 20 in the world rankings who have

multiple majors under their belts. From your perspective, who are those best golfers in the world right now? And is there a class of golfers who are coming up that we should keep our eye on for those of us who are interested in the fantasy stuff? I think that there are, without too much insight, because I don't want to get myself in trouble. Yeah. But no, I think that there is a new crop of players out here right now

that are incredible. I mean, Nellie, Brooke, Danielle Kang, you know, so good, really consistent, in contention, week in and week out. I mean, their games are just really solid. Even a player like Aria Gentanagan, who's maybe not had her best the last year or two, but still so solid. You know, at any point could just get it going and she hits it unbelievably far really well, great putter. There are a lot of players out there that probably people don't really know about, but the talent pool is pretty deep. And then you've got a lot of these young girls that are hitting at miles, which is cool.

Maria Fosse and Van Dam. I mean, they're, they hit it probably as far as some of the shorter guys on the PGA tour, which is far. And I think Golf Channel is doing a good job of trying to showcase them a little bit more just to see that that length is out there. You know, Lexi has been kind of like the long hitter for a long time and she still is. But Fossi and Van Dam really absolutely pound the golf ball, which is cool. You mentioned a bunch of American names, and one of the things I was surprised by is an American hasn't won a major in, we're going on over two years now. The last eight majors have been won by international women. A lot of different walks of life, you know, obviously. I think that'll change. I don't think that that means much of anything. I mean, because we've had a fair share of American winners already with this restart.

I think they're playing good. I mean, Nellie almost won A&A. I don't know exactly what it came down to at the British. It seemed like Sophia ran away with it, and I don't exactly remember who was in contention at that point. I would be shocked if there isn't an American winner either this week or U.S. Open, to be fair. I think that it's out there. So, but NB. Park right, yeah, NB. Park right now has seven majors, right?

there's almost nobody else of the folks that you've talked about. It's changed. Yeah. So is there just a lot more parity? Is it the technology's making players better? How have we got to this place? I think that the depth of competition really is better. Let's say 10 years from now to now.

And there hasn't been anyone that's been able to just like break through dominate the way NB did. But I do think that that is because, you know, you just have a few more players every day. week that are if they're on top of their game can kind of push someone from winning like they may be up there in contention but you know you may have someone else step in and win that tournament and and i just don't know if you're going to see a ton of multiple time winners right now because of just the way that unless someone really separates themselves and that takes you know like what you

see with Inby Park or Tiger Woods or Onica or Kariweb. Like it's just a mental, I think it's got to be more a mental thing than it is like a skill set thing to like separate you to that to that level. And maybe it'll happen. I mean, I don't see anyone in the top five in the world not being capable of doing that. It's just if it happens. But you see the overall level of play has risen dramatically in the last few years. In my time out from like when I started to now,

what it takes to make a cut is so much harder. The scores are so much lower. And I don't think anything is changing from a setup standpoint. I mean, they try to lengthen our courses, but it's really not making a difference in terms of the scores. They're still low. Granted, technology is allowing us to hit it a little bit further. I just don't think it's proportional to how much further you see the guys hitting the golf ball.

I don't want them to roll back anything. Well, we saw a couple women who looked like they were kind of poised and maybe rip-all. a whole slew. I mean, Ariya Jatagan, you mentioned her. I thought, you know, she could be on one of those NB roles. And Lydia Coe is so young, you know, she looked like she was set up. Lydia is doing great. She's worked a lot on her swing in the last couple years. And I mean, she's an amazing shape. Like, I think she was so dominant there for a while. And I don't, I think that that'll be back for her. I do. So House made the point that we've had a lot of international major winners.

10 of the top 40 in the Rolex rankings are Americans. This is a truly international sport. It is an international sport. And I could be way off base here. But 10 in the top 40 might be the highest it's been for us in a really long time. Right. I don't know if that is, if I'm just saying that because I want to believe it, or if that's actually true. I think if you like go back like three, four years ago, I don't

think you would find that step. Right. It sounds like a lot of the way that you have played golf through your career through the eye test. And so you watch a lot of other players and you learn from them and absorb. But in the men's game, the world golf rankings are oftentimes a shit show because they can be manipulated through a bunch of other tours. And there's guys who get into tournaments who, you know, spend a bunch of time winning remote events in Asia. Some of the best players in the world in the women's tour are definitely sitting in Korea and other parts of Asia right now. So is there manipulation of those rankings? Like, you're 33rd in the world. Does that mean you're really eighth or do we do a better job on the LPGA and the Rolex rankings of evaluating players?

I don't necessarily think we do any different than the men do. And right now we're getting, it's a struggle because of the fact that this COVID has changed, how many of our players that are LPGA members playing here on this tour this year. So the KLPGA events are getting rated pretty high because a lot of it depends on the total world ranking of the field of the event. Then that determines how much points you get for your finishes. So, you know, you have like we had drive on, we had marathon, we've had some events that have just been filled with not a ton of high-ranked players, and it's not doing a top player and a lot of favors in helping to improve their ranking. It's like winner busts. Like if you're not in the top three,

you know, it's actually hurting your world ranking. And I think we're seeing a lot of players on the KLPGA kind of in that, trust me, they're really good players. I'm not discrediting their abilities at all. I just, it's really difficult to say how, it all falls out because we don't play against each other that much, but they have like a total world ranking in their field that's pretty high. So it's just like it's allowing them to continue to keep their world rankings like higher or at least stable. And we're struggling, I think, this year with COVID for that reason. I think some of our events are getting weighted less and the rankings are a little bit all over the map. Well, even more reason to watch the major because that's

where it all comes together and with the exception of people missing it. Yeah. The majors are going to be, you know, ultimately like you're getting the best of the best out there. You are, regardless of COVID year or not. The course setups are challenging. You have the, you know, I'm thinking people are playing. Like there's usually exemptions for girls, KLPGA and JLPGA and most of our majors based on their world rankings or their orders of merit. So you have a pretty, I would say, international representation, like top players are playing. So I think that their majors are best indication of who's the best right now. Well, I really appreciate how much time you have given us.

I want to put you on the spot in a second. But I'm going to let you think about it because you are now, whether you agree to it or not, you are now officially our LPGA correspondent on the ground. And we're going to be checking in with you occasionally, hopefully much sooner rather than much later in terms of you back out playing and be able to give us some reports from the grounds. But the thing I'm going to ask you in a second is your pick for the PGA championship. But don't give an answer right now. You get to think about it a little bit.

You get to chew on it because speaking of chew on meatball, I need to hear what's going on in the kitchen. You have a little bit of more time now than you would prefer to be at home cooking. What's the number one go-to dish at the moment in the Marina Alex Meatball kitchen? I've been lazy. I haven't been cooking that much. Not for myself anyway. If some of my friends want to come over and we'll do dinner, that's one thing. I made a boulinese the other night. Okay, okay, okay. Week before I did some baked clams, which was fun. Oh, magical. This is great. Yeah, I love clams. My friend Jen, she was like, oh, I'm going to go to the fish market and get some clams and we'll cook. And I was like, okay, cool. And she texts me. And she texts me. me and was like, oh, they didn't have, I think we were going to make a clam pasta and they didn't have little necks. They only had real big ones. And she's like, let's, can we do big clams? I'm like, sure.

I was like, just please ask the guy to shuck them before you bring them over. And she was like, oh, I already left, but he showed me how to shuck one. You shucked the clams. It's like, oh my God, you're fucking kidding me. Like, we're going to sit here for an hour shucking clams because I really I don't know how to give it and needed a shit. It was awful. So it took us like 45 minutes to like shuck maybe two dozen clams. I mean, it was just a nightmare. But if they turned out, they were delicious and it was great.

I was just like, I wanted to not like be annoying about her insisting on getting them shuck, but I was like, I really don't want to do this. It's not easy. And they make it look easy. And it's really hard. Have you guys been to Carbone? I've been to carbone. You have.

I really worked on the spicy regatoni vodka. How's it coming? It's good. It's good. I think I'm doing all right. I have some friends coming over on Friday that I told him I would make it for them. So I'll see. Yeah.

We're going to ask for how if that's, that's going to be the next update when we get together. How did it go down? We need to see a picture. Put it up on the gram. We need to see a picture. if there's no picture it didn't happen so we got to see it on the ground are the baked clams on the gram uh not oh marina people get mad at me i don't save any of it like i put it on my story but

then i'm just not into like a picture picture of the clams they're beautiful i know no you work so hard on them people are like oh put it on like your timeline story and make a recipe and i'm like that's a lot of work like i just don't want to do any of that we're look at some point we're going to have you on House of Carbs. That show's coming back on the Ringer podcast Network. House of Carbs. And we're going to, we will see what progress you've made. Okay, I just gave you four and a half minutes to think about your pick. And I'll let you make two for the PGA championship. Irana makes nobody will be offended. No, it's not offended. I don't want to jinx the people that I want to. She didn't want to put the Joe House official stink on the player.

I'm not, but as long as I'm out of it, these, these girls have a great. chance. Joe absolutely destroyed Sergio Garcia last week, who turned around and probably won the tournament. Before the tournament, I said a lot of bad things about him. I talked about collecting checks. Yeah, exactly.

So this is going to be good. Whoever you gave out, it's going to be good. I think that, I think Lydia's a good pick. I mean, I love Nelly. I really like Nelly. I just don't want to put the thing on it. Well, you're not going to pick her. We're just telling us I'm not picking.

I'm not picking anyone. Yeah, yeah. That's it. Just a couple of girls that we're going to root for this weekend. That's it. How about that? Absolutely.

Put it that way. Okay. Marina Alex, our LPGA tour correspondent on the ground. Fairway, Roland, thank you so much for coming on today. We appreciate it. Get well soon.

Thank you. Bye. Okay. Yeah.