Stark captures U.S. Women’s Open title

Stark captures U.S. Women’s Open title | Daily Tribune

Maja Stark captured her first major title in impressive style Sunday, carding an even-par 72 to win the 80th US Women's Open by two strokes over top-ranked Nelly Korda and Rio Takeda.

Sweden's Stark put on a clinical display on the imposing Erin Hills course in Wisconsin, where back-to-back bogeys to finish her round proved inconsequential as her seven-under total of 281 gave her the victory with room to spare.

She became the third player from Sweden to lift the trophy and the first since Annika Sorenstam won her third in 2006.

"This just feels huge," said Stark, who admitted her best golf "felt like it was so far away" coming into the week.

"You always kind of know that it's possible, but there are so many good golfers on this tour. I (didn't) think I would be able to do it this week."

Leading by one to start the day, Stark opened with five straight pars, benefiting from a lucky break at the fifth when her tee shot scooted through the left rough and settled in the fairway.

She then pushed her lead to two strokes with her first birdie of the day at the par-three sixth, where she rolled in a 21-foot putt.

She gave a stroke back at the seventh, where her tee shot found a fairway bunker, and was clinging to a one-stroke lead when she arrived at the 11th.

That changed in moments however, Stark rattling in a 14-foot birdie putt at 11 shortly after Korda's three-putt bogey at the 13th dropped the American star to five-under, the sequence of events leaving Stark with a three-stroke cushion.

Korda, who started the day three shots adrift, applied pressure with back to back birdies at the seventh and eighth.

After her bogey at 13 she pulled a stroke back at the par-five 14th, where she had a look at eagle but settled for a birdie.

Japan's Hinako Shibuno and Takeda also reached six-under with birdies at the 14th.

But Stark held her nerve and extended her lead with a birdie of her own at 14, where her second shot from the fairway caught the slope of the green and rolled to a stop 11 feet below the pin.

She left her eagle putt short, but tapped in for a birdie that pushed her lead to three strokes.

Her rivals had already faltered -- Shibuno with a double-bogey at 15, Takeda with a bogey at 17 and Korda with a bogey at the last.

Korda posted a one-under-par 71 and was joined on 283 by Takeda, who had three birdies to balance her bogey and a front-nine double bogey in a 72.

Stark's nerves were finally showing when she went left off the tee at both the 17th and 18th.

But she limited the damage to bogeys at both -- an impressive effort at the treacherous 18th where playing partner Julia Lopez Ramirez took a triple bogey eight that included a shot into the scoring tent.

Stark laid up out of the rough at 18, then came up short of the green. After a long wait as Lopez Ramirez played she rolled a putt from off the green to 43 feet.

She said her putt from there, leaving her a foot to claim the title, was the shot she'll remember "because it felt like there's just so much that could go wrong.

"It's downhill, right to left, and if I hit it too hard then it was going to keep rolling," she said.

For 22-year-old Lopez Ramirez it was a disappointing finish. Trailing by one to start she closed with a seven-over 79.

Korda, owner of two major titles, notched her best finish in the US Open, improving on her tie for eighth in 2022.

"Still very complicated," she said of her relationship with the championship.

"It's just an absolute heartbreaker.”

Korda, 26, remains in search of a first victory since November, when she claimed the seventh LPGA title of her record-setting 2024 campaign.

"Hopefully (I) can kind of build off of this, putting myself in contention at a major and obviously just slipping just short," Korda said.

"Hurts a little, but I'm happy with the progress and hopefully I can continue like this."