Maja Stark on Sunday on the 14th hole at Erin Hills.
Getty Images
ERIN, Wis. — Maja Stark confused her friends.
A day earlier, she’d turned philosophical. How would she fight obvious jitters during Sunday’s U.S. Women’s Open final round, where she’d start ahead by two strokes? Through pride. And how do you make yourself proud? Stark offered that it was by sticking to her routines and sticking to her swing thoughts, thus controlling all you could control. Deep stuff. Only when asked about it a day later, two of her closest confidants were a bit flummoxed.
“I don’t know exactly what it means,” Ingrid Lindblad said of pride playing.
“Ooh, I don’t know what she would think that that is,” Linn Grant said.
Late Sunday afternoon, everyone knew what it equaled — Stark’s your newest USWO champion, after her even-par round of 72 gave her a two-shot win over Nelly Korda and Rio Takeda at Erin Hills. And afterward, she said she was a woman of her word to her thought. Maybe you spotted it, too. For some two-and-a-half hours across the final nine, her pride was as abundant as the Spotted Cow beers here.
3:27 p.m. local time: On 10, Stark’s lead had dropped to one. At 3:38, there was a sticking-to-a-swing-thought. There was the pride. While reading a putt for birdie, she made what looked like a bowling motion with her hand, the move seemingly mimicking what the ball would look like traveling toward the hole. Putting’s been a bug-a-boo of late for her; she said her coach, Joe Hallett, said she tends to peek at the hole early. At 3:41, she made a shortie and fist-pumped.
3:54: On 11, she led by three, after a birdie and a Korda bogey ahead. A greenside leaderboard told the score. Hold that thought, please.
4:13: There was a sticking-to-a-routine. There was the pride. To the right of the tee box on the par-3 13th, some ice cubes rattled in the nearby cooler. Playing partner Julia Lopez Ramirez was spooked. Stark wasn’t. Iron to the green. At 4:22 p.m., you could hear TV drones buzzing overhead. No matter. Stark parred. Up ahead, Korda birdied, and the Stark lead was down to two again.
4:31: This was smart. Six days earlier, one-time Solheim Cup teammate Gemma Dryburgh talked about the beauty of the par-5 14th hole. On the second shot, you could play a shot right of a mound about 100 yards short of the green in an attempt to reduce yardage — but the best angle into the green was actually just going with the bit longer left option. Stark, a longer hitter, went right. She birdied. Up three.
4:45: This was interesting. Jim “Bones” Mackay, a longtime caddie now doing on-course analysis for the broadcast, walked over and asked if Stark had looked at any leaderboards yet. It didn’t appear she had — and Mackay stared her down to check if she would read one left of the 14th green. She didn’t.
4:49: Folks were noticing. To the left of the 15th fairway, a volunteer charting driving yardage earlier in the week had returned as a fan, and he’d noticed Stark’s approach. Unflappable. A Thursday 70. A Friday 69. A Saturday 70. Nothing hot. Nothing cold. Goldilocks golf. But to Stark, her play had been a surprise — she said entering the week, her confidence wasn’t great, after no wins on the LPGA since her first, in 2022. More swing thoughts. “During the practice days,” she said. “I realized that if I just kind of hovered the club above the ground a little bit before I hit, I released some tension in my body. I think that just doing my processes well and knowing, giving myself little things like that was the key this week because I don’t really think that — I don’t really want to rely on my confidence for stuff.”
4:56: The correspondent slipped down a hill. No one saw. 5:07: The correspondent obliged a youngster wanting a high-five along the ropes. His day was made.
5:09: Seventeen, a testing par-4. Things seemed over at least to a volunteer, who asked another volunteer: “Can we leave now?” Not yet! Stark’s tee shot sailed left, forcing just a punch-out second shot. Back to routine, though. Stark hit to 22 feet, two-putted and bogeyed — while Korda bogeyed 18, and the separation remained three.
5:37 – 5:48: A wait. Poor Lopez-Ramirez. After Stark was greenside in three, her playing partner struggled around the green and ended up with a triple-bogey eight. The details will be spared, except these: To pass the time, Stark listened to her caddie, Jeff Brighton, tell jokes. Care to share, Maja? “I don’t remember right now. He will do like several holes that I will say a joke over or a story, and it’s great because it kind of makes me focus on what he’s saying instead of how I’m feeling and stuff.” Hmm. What did you say, Jeff? “It’s just just shite. I mean, I just waffle. Just you try and get their head away from looking, oh, gosh. I would say Maja is quite an intense player. You know, she tries really hard. She’s really competitive. So when you’re intense, you try just to get their head away from golf, the last shot, the next shot, and just, it’s a long, long time out there.”
5:53: Up three on the 72nd hole, Stark putted for bogey from 13 inches away. Here’s routine for the final time. Here’s pride for the final time. She wiped the face of her putter before putting, a la like Brooks Koepka, who won himself a U.S. Open crown on this course eight years ago. Stark was then a winner, too.
Afterward, she spoke with pride of joining Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann as the only Swedish winners of the Open; Sorenstam face-timed her on 18 after the picture proceedings. The 25-year-old Stark is a one-time winner on the LPGA circuit, and has won six times on the Ladies European Tour, but an Open crown moves you into superstardom, or at least into some new digs and a cellphone-plan upgrade. Stark said she wouldn’t know what she’d do with the $2.4 million awarded to the winner, though she said she’d maybe move out of her studio apartment — and be able to call home; in the celebration on 18, her parents had wanted to call her, but Stark declined, saying it cost too much.
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
