Two local golfers in New Jersey’s Marina Alex and Long Island’s Annie Park have hit the fairways of Pebble Beach this week in the 2023 US Women’s Open.
With the oldest major championship in women’s professional golf at the No. 1-ranked public golf course in the country Alex, Park, and 154 of the world’s best golfers compete for an $11 million purse on the California links.
Marina Alex
Speaking about playing on the world’s best courses last month, Marina spoke at a press conference at New Jersey’s Liberty National Golf Club.
“It’s key, it really is… as players we’ve been saying this for a really long time. It’s kind of a little missing piece in the puzzle for us,” Alex said. “When we are playing great golf courses like… Baltusrol [New Jersey] or Pebble [Beach] or wherever we’re playing just in this year. I think it just helps show how great women’s golf is because there’s a benchmark that’s being set by men’s golf by the PGA Tour of how wonderful those courses are and then when you see unbelievable champions on the women’s side playing at these courses, I think it just makes everyone understand how strong our product really is.”
The Wayne, NJ native is a two-time New Jersey High school golf champion and a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour.
Her most recent win on the LPGA Tour came after she carded a final-round 66 to claim the 2022 Palos Verdes Championship in Southern California. This will be her ninth start in the US Women’s Open, finishing T-51. Her best finish was T-11 in 2017 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. Her best finish in a major championship is a tie for ninth in the 2014 Women’s British Open.
Alex will tee off at 8:17 a.m. ET on Friday for Round 2 of the US Women’s Open.
Annie Park
Park finished 74th in last month’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She shot a 70-69 at Echo Lake Country Club in Westfield, NJ to qualify for her sixth US Women’s Open. Birdies on the final two holes secured her ticket to Pebble Beach.
The USC alum, who won an NCAA individual title as a freshman, started playing golf when she was eight and turned professional in 2016. The Long-Islander has had one LPGA Tour victory in her career at the 2018 ShopRite LPGA Classic in Galloway, NJ.
Park will tee off at 2:57 p.m. on Friday for Round 2.
