How Maja Stark held off Nelly Korda to win the U.S. Women's Open

New York Times

2 days ago

ERIN, Wisc. — You can see it all atop the ninth tee, standing on the hill overlooking the rolling mounds and marshes. There are barns and dairy pastures in view across the sprawling Wisconsin countryside. You can see from one end of Erin Hills to the other, hardly a tree in sight from the large wooden clubhouse in the south to the 18th green in the center, and across the fields of green to the 15th hole tucked in the northeast corner. The man in charge of this event, USGA CEO Mike Whan, called it 'Field of Dreams for golf.'
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And atop this hill, you can see how the 80th U.S. Women's Open was decided.
The daunting eighth hole with its steep, blind fairway is to your right. To your left is the 10th tee shot. A little further left and you have the approaches into the 11th green. Take a few steps behind you and you can look down the valley that is the 12th hole in between mounds, and the downhill par-3 No. 13 around a marsh.
But if you just look in front of you, you see the true stage of this U.S. Open. You see the gorgeous downhill par-3 — No. 9 — a 145-yard shot surrounded by slopes and bunkers with just the tiniest little landing spot to save you from rolling away.
It's at this spot where you see contender after contender roll from the center of the green, off to the right and down the fairway for bogey. You see Ruoning Yin and Sarah Schmelzel enter with hope, only to roll off that slope and say goodbye. You see Linn Grant hit it to 19 inches, the shot of the week there, to gain hope of her own.
Oh, and just off in the distance, you see Nelly Korda coming up that hill on eight. You see the horde of fans behind her, packed together, a strange sight at such a vast, spread-out property. You see Korda, fresh off a birdie on seven, make her 17-foot birdie putt on eight to get within one of the lead. The No. 1 player in the world is coming, and leader Maja Stark knows it.
And it's here on nine, you see Korda hit the perfect, correct play. Left side of the green along the ridge, away from the bunkers, away from that center slope. Nine feet for birdie. This is the kind of U.S. Open golf Korda has been clamoring for. Patient yet scorable. Dialed but not risky. No blowups for the critics to hone in on. The tournament was coming to her, if she could just grab it.
The birdie putt did not fall. Neither did the next chance, nor the next one, nor the eagle putt after that. She did not gain another stroke on the day.
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So some 20 minutes later, when Stark finally made her way up the hill, we did not realize she'd already done all she'd need to win this U.S. Open. At 7 under par, with Korda one behind, Stark did not need to attack. U.S. Opens are not often won by heroics. They are won by the correct decisions made across four days, well before any singular Sunday moment.
Stark found her line and hit that approach into nine, rolling up the center, past the pin and hanging up top for an easy two-putt par. Maybe it was truly over then, because Stark got this far by playing proper U.S. Open golf. She found fairways. She hit greens. She controlled her spin on those evil edges. She played the back nine in even par to seal her first major victory Sunday in a two-shot rout that felt like more.
On a course where 197 double bogeys were scored — and 33 holes even worse — Stark bogeyed just 10 of 72 holes. She was the only player in the field to go under par each of the first three rounds, and the only reason she finished with a Sunday 72 is her four-shot lead meant she could play uber-conservative and bogey 17 and 18.
This was a U.S. Open won by a golfer who straight-up said she had low expectations. She said, 'I haven't been playing that well lately.' And she is right. She had just one top-20 finish in the last eight months, and she hasn't truly contended since her second-place finish at the Chevron Championship a whole 13 months ago.
But another U.S. Open rule of thumb: They are not won by players trying to win a U.S. Open. They are won by respecters of the golf course, stewards of par. They go to the golfers who limit mistakes and capture the opportunities given. They are earned, rarely taken.
And sometimes it takes a win to see the greater picture, and there are some golfers made for certain tests.
"I had a friend tell me, you need to be confident and you need to trust yourself. That's what I tried to do, to make myself and everyone on my team proud."
Maja Stark's had the resolve to get the job done on Sunday at @ErinHillsGolf. @Ally pic.twitter.com/hrhdKMo67P
— U.S. Women's Open (@uswomensopen) June 1, 2025
Stark was 20, an Oklahoma State freshman, when she finished T13 in her U.S. Open debut. A year later, she went to the Olympic Club and finished T16. Two U.S. Open top 20s before she turned pro. Two years later, in perhaps her worst professional season, Stark came in at T9 at Pebble Beach. She is a U.S. Open golfer, and sometimes it is that simple.
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'I don't really think I ever felt that my confidence was great,' Stark said. 'I think that I just stopped trying to control everything, and I just kind of let everything happen the way it happened.'
The most U.S. Open answer possible.
As much as Stark is Sunday's story, though, it is impossible to ignore the story of every women's golf tournament these days: Nelly Korda. Because she is the game's best, and because she is the one who admittedly puts so much pressure on U.S. Opens, it leads to implosions and missed cuts. In her previous 10 starts, she rarely left herself in contention at all.
But this week was different. From tee to green, Korda did everything to earn this U.S. Open. She launched it off the tee and still ranked third in fairways found. She was second in greens in regulation and led the entire championship in the tee-to-green strokes gained category. No silly errors. No short-game blowups. Korda did not find a single bunker for four days. She put herself in every good spot and left herself a birdie putt seemingly every hole.
They just didn't fall.
'Not much to say other than it does sting to come up short,' she said.
Korda finished 52nd in putting out of the 60 golfers who made the cut. Other than two painful short misses on Friday, she didn't miss gimmes, either. The 50-50 putts just never went her way. 'When you strike it really well and you give yourself so many opportunities, it does get at the end of the day, frustrating. It comes down to your putting, right?
'I wasn't hitting bad putts,' she continued. 'Not at all. I wasn't pushing them. I wasn't pulling them. They just weren't falling.'
The pain for Korda won't be about any glaring mistake or some huge missed chance that turned the tide. It will be about the opportunities she amassed over 72 holes, and how she just couldn't quite take them.
But on 13, still in view atop our beloved hill, Korda trailed by just one with a five-foot par putt remaining. She missed left, dropping to 5 under after her big run. Seemingly seconds later, just 70 or so yards away on 11, Stark made a tricky 14-foot birdie to create a three-stroke gap.
Then Korda responded with one of the best shots of the week into the par-5 14th, playing it off the back ridge and down the slope for a 14-foot eagle look. A chance to get back within one. It didn't come close as she had to settle for birdie. By the time Korda bogeyed the par-5 18th hole to finish 5 under par, the tournament was completely Stark's to lose.
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'Obviously, with the pressure and everything, your mistakes get bigger,' Stark said, 'but it felt like I could just control anything that was thrown at me really today.'
Now, Stark goes into the history books, joining the club of Swedish major winners like Annika Sörenstam and Anna Nordqvist. She will continue her career as somebody who knows that, even when their game isn't in form, she can play proper golf and win.
But perhaps the greatest winner of the week is Erin Hills. It's a course criticized for how it played eight years ago in the men's U.S. Open, a week when Brooks Koepka ran away at 16 under par and the lack of wind made it appear easy. But this week was an undeniable success, those slopes causing damage, those greens forcing balls to fly from end to end.
And there were those beautiful rolling hills and the things they let us see.
(Top photo of Maja Stark at the 18th tee: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)