Two-Time LPGA Tour Winner Latest To Announce Retirement
Marina Alex played her final round at the CME Group Tour Championship, joining Lexi Thompson and Ally Ewing, who also called time on their full-time careers at the LPGA Tour season-closer


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.”
Marina Alex chose the CME Group Tour Championship as her final tournament
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.”
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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.
During her LPGA Tour career, she 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.
Marina Alex picked up two LPGA Tour wins
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 left the game this year was 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.”
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Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories.
He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game.
Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course.
Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.
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