Golf-Unheralded Alex comfortable sharing lead with Hall of Famer

By Larry Fine LANCASTER, Pennsylvania, July 9 (Reuters) - Marina Alex missed five cuts in a row this season but on Thursday the 24-year-old American was cutting up Lancaster Country Club with an opening 66 to share the early lead in the U.S. Women's Open. The unheralded Alex, who has been tinkering with some swing adjustments, notched her first top 10 of the year with a tie for ninth in Arkansas two weeks ago and carried her form over to the first round of the year's third major championship. "I've been working on some stuff with my coach," the New Jersey native, who was tied with Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, told reporters. "I just feel more comfortable and I'm making freer swings and the results are showing from that." Alex said she felt comfortable playing Lancaster, which reminds her of classic parkland courses back home. "It's a very traditional northeast style golf course, so it's definitely what I'm used to, growing up around here," said Alex, who was raised in Wayne, New Jersey, less than three hours drive away. Alex, whose best finish in her 2014 LPGA rookie season was a tie for ninth at the Women's British Open, said changing her swing plane to improve consistency was finally paying off. The former Vanderbilt college player held a low-key attitude about her lofty position and said she would not be eyeballing the leaderboard. "I don't watch it. I try not to follow the scores all that much until maybe come the weekend," she said. "I'm not a frontrunner for this tournament, really. "I'm just going to go out there and have fun tomorrow with my caddie, keep doing the things that we've been doing and just see where that puts me." Alex's only previous U.S. Open experience came in 2009 at Saucon Valley where she missed the cut after shooting 160. "It's totally different," she explained. "I was an amateur. I qualified like the last spot on my sectional. I think I was just finishing my first year of college. My game then and now is not even remotely the same. "I was a nervous kid, pretty much. Now I have been out here my second year. It's just more comfortable and more familiar and I know that it is a major and it is the U.S. Open, but I see the same faces every week." (Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)