It is the beginning of December, six months away from her big win at US 2025 Open Women’sand Maja Stark is finally starting to feel her competitive fire again.
That might sound like a strange thing to say about a major champion and top 20 player in the world, but Stark’s recent form has been lacking. Despite her win at the Wisconsin Open Erin Hills in June, the months since then have been somewhat difficult.
“When I won, I kept thinking, Well, I just did the biggest thing I’ll probably ever do in my career“For weeks, maybe months, I couldn’t stop thinking about that week. And it made me lose some motivation. I didn’t really know what to do next.”
The 26-year-old Swede is describing post-achievement depression, something only those who have reached the top are familiar with: the emotional letdown after a peak achievement. She had fulfilled a dream she had since childhood. All her dreams, in fact: Solheim Cup winner (with Team Europe in 2023); Olympian (for Sweden, at the ’24 Games in Paris); LPGA Tour Winner (ISPS Handa World Invitational in 2022); six times winner on the European circuit; and now, grand champion. All of a sudden, the resume felt … complete.
“It was like checking the last big box,” she says, calling from her home in Nashville, Tenn., where she moved after her stellar run at Oklahoma State University. “I’ve experienced so many amazing things already, and I wasn’t sure what else was next.”
In the wake of her triumph at Erin Hills, Stark missed seven of her next nine cuts. At that moment, her team entered.
“They helped me understand what was going on,” she says. “We sat down and started creating new targets. Small ones at first.”
They weren’t high – example: two more top 10s before the end of the 2025 season. And she didn’t always meet them. But they served their purpose.
“I needed something short-term to de-stress,” Stark says with a laugh. “In a good way. I needed something to follow.”
This renewed sense of pursuit is central to who Stark is—not just as a competitor, but as a technician. Her Open win didn’t come on a hot streak. In 2025, she had just one top 10 before arriving at Erin Hills. It came from solving something.
“I had very low confidence that week,” she recalls. “Nothing was clicking. I was trying to find something at all.”
That “anything” turned out to be a simple trigger. While preparing with her coach, Joe Hallett, Stark noticed something about her putting routine: She always hovered her head slightly above the ground before picking it up again. What if she tried the same thing with her irons?
“I thought maybe it would help me to let go of control and start swinging more smoothly,” she says. “I had a million thoughts in my head and I only needed one to clear the rest.”
Diana King
There was another little key, too: keeping her eyes locked on the ball longer through the stroke, preventing her hips from shooting too early and spinning her open. The combination helped sharpen her touch. Perhaps most importantly, it helped put her mind at ease.
Stark remembers the moment he felt something big might be brewing. It wasn’t Thursday of that week. It wasn’t on Sunday. It was Wednesday, in the top nine of her practice round.
“I was hitting really good fairways and (Golf Channel course reporter) Karen Stupples came up to the tee where we were,” Stark says. “When someone like Karen — a past major champion — is watching, you want to show you’re good. I hit a 4-iron on 8 into a very scary pin and made birdie.”
It wasn’t a predictor of victory, but it was a hint, a boost of confidence that appeared at just the right time. When the week ended with her lifting the trophy, its gravity became real. The calls came from her parents, her coach and, most memorably, fellow Swede and mentor Annika Sörenstam. “She took time out of her little trip to Alaska to call me,” says Stark. “That was really cool.”
Now, months later, Stark’s outlook on that week is more grounded. She’s grateful for the win, but just as grateful to feel “normal” again—to feel the healthy pressure to improve, to care about the present rather than the past, to get back to the chase. Short-term goals still drive him every day, but a new long-term vision is also taking shape. The major didn’t mark the top of a mountain, it marked the beginning of another climb.
“I feel stressed about my golf again, and for me,” she says with a smile, “that’s a really good feeling.”
;)
