In a pre-tournament presser at this week’s International Crown on the LPGA, Maja Stark was asked how winning a major changed her life.
Her answer was blunt.
“Honestly, it was a little bit of a struggle afterwards because it’s something that I’d been looking forward to for so long, thinking about it for so long, and the U.S. Open is my favorite one,” the 25-year-old Swede said.
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Earlier this year, Stark claimed her maiden major in the grueling U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills, fending off then-world No. 1 Nelly Korda.
Since that life-changing week, Stark has missed four cuts in eight starts, with just one top 10, which was a T5 at the Kroger Queen City Championship in September.
“I had a lot of comfort afterwards,” she said, “but it’s probably been too comfortable because I’ve thought you have your Tour card for five years, and I reached the goal that I wanted to reach, which is just win the U.S. Open.
“So it was a bit of a struggle for me, and I feel like it took a few months to really come back and gain the motivation back that I felt before in my career. So yeah, it was really hard this summer, actually.”
This isn’t unusual, though. Rory McIlroy revealed he lost some fire after completing the career Grand Slam in April at the Masters, admitting, “You dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don’t think about what comes next.”
Lydia Ko, a LPGA Hall of Famer who was sitting next to Stark when she disclosed her post-USWO struggles, could relate.
“I think for me, I felt it after the [winning gold at the 2016] Rio Olympics,” the 28-year-old said. “It was the first time that golf was going to be back in over 100 years, and I wanted to make sure that I was there on the team for New Zealand.”
Ko added: “I do believe that we’re not the only two players that have probably felt that, and I give credit to Maja because it’s really hard to—it’s easy to talk about the good things, but it’s very difficult to talk about especially mental stuff that goes on behind the scenes.”
Ko, however, envies Stark in one aspect.
“I’m jealous that she has won a U.S. Women’s Open,” said Ko, a three-time major champion.
So what has re-energized Stark?
“I’ve been talking to my sports psychologist a lot,” she said, “and I think it was just time, really. It feels like you kind of come down from—well, my high wasn’t very high, but you come down from people wanting to talk about it all the time, and you have to just keep thinking back to this week, and it feels like I wasn’t living in that week anymore.
“I had to move on and I was like, okay, but now we’re doing this, we set up some new goals for the rest of the season, and I just got that mental help that I needed.”
Although Ko once felt similarly, she eventually regained her edge, going on to win another major and a second gold medal in 2024. Now, she believes Stark can follow in her footsteps.
“I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of majors and everything and a lot of highs in Maja’s future and hopefully mine,” Ko said, “it’s hard as much as it’s good.”
“I think sometimes you only see the bright side of the rainbow.”
