Marina Alex shoots opening round of 5 under, takes early lead at CP Women’s Open
OTTAWA — Playing professional golf isn’t that much different from having a standard 9-5 job. There’s a similar litany of problems. In the first round of the CP Women’s Open, it was a traffic jam.
Marina Alex had four birdies on the back nine and finished 5-under 66 to take the clubhouse lead at the Women’s Open on Thursday and held on to a one-stroke lead by the end of the round in part thanks to high winds. Those gusts forced golfers to take more time on their drives and approach shots which slowed down the pace of play at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.
“It was kind of hard to get momentum, I think, for any of us because we would sit on the tee box and wait sometimes three and four minutes,” said Alex, who said the pace of play was slow from her second hole on. “It’s just hard to get a good group, and if you have a good group, it really kind of gets disrupted, so it’s tough.
“You have pretty challenging conditions right now. Every shot was kind of just difficult as we approached it, and it’s hard to get into a flow when you’re stopping and starting and stopping and starting.”