MAJA Stark has won tournaments around the world, but a professional victory in the United States eluded her.
Now she’s a US Women’s Open champion.
Stark carded an even-par 72 to win the second major of the year by two shots Sunday (Monday in Manila) at Erin Hills in Erin, Wisconsin.
The 25-year-old from Sweden led the championship by one stroke through 54 holes and outlasted world No. 1 Nelly Korda, who got within a shot of the lead before petering out on the back nine.
“I just didn’t want to get ahead of myself. I thought there’s still a lot of golf left to be played,” Stark said. “I just felt like people are going to pass me probably, and I just had to stay calm through that.
“I didn’t look at the leaderboards until I was on like 17. I caught a glimpse of it. It was nice.”
Stark posted a 7-under-par 281 for the week. Korda (71) tied for second with Japan’s Rio Takeda (72) at 5 under, and South Korea’s Hye-Jin Choi carded a 68 to claim a share of fourth place at 4 under with countrywoman Mao Saigo (73) and China’s Ruoning Yin (70).
Korda had a 2-under front nine to get to 6 under for the championship. Stark was nursing a one-stroke lead over Korda when she birdied No. 11 from 14 feet.
Advertisement • Scroll to continue
Korda bogeyed the par-3 13th and birdied the next hole, but only after an eagle opportunity slid by.
Stark made a two-putt birdie at No. 14 to get to 9 under and had enough cushion to absorb bogeys at the difficult Nos. 17 and 18, where she missed each fairway.
“You need to kind of think about every shot here,” Stark said of the difficult course setup. “Maybe not the tee shot on 10. I think that’s fine. But everything else, you’ve just got to have your brain working for you, whereas like on normal weeks, you can kind of bail out. Here, not really.”
Stark has six wins to her name on the Ladies European Tour. One of those, the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland, was co-sanctioned by the LPGA and earned her a tour card in 2022.
Before Sunday, the highlight of Stark’s minimal major resume was placing second to Korda at the 2024 Chevron Championship. Now, she is just the third Swedish woman to win a US Women’s Open after Liselotte Neumann and golf legend Annika Sorenstam.
