ERIN, Wis. — Maja Stark continued the regular play she had demonstrated all week to win the U.S. Ladies’s Open and declare her first main championship Sunday at Erin Hills.
Stark shot an even-par 72 to complete at 7-under 281, two strokes forward of top-ranked Nelly Korda and Japan’s Rio Takeda.
Stark earned $2.4 million within the greatest occasion of the ladies’s golf season. The 25-year-old Stark turned the sixth Swede to win a girls’s main, and the primary since Anna Nordqvist within the 2021 Ladies’s British Open. The previous Oklahoma State participant is the primary Swede to win a U.S. Ladies’s Open since Annika Sorenstam in 2006.
Stark received her second LPGA Tour title. She additionally received the 2022 ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Eire, an occasion co-sanctioned by the Women European Tour.
Korda closed with a 71, and Takeda had a 72.
Hye-Jin Choi (68), Ruoning Yin (70) and Mao Saigo (73) tied for fourth at 4 below. Hailee Cooper (70) and Hinako Shibuno (74) have been 3 below.
Stark took a one-stroke lead into the ultimate spherical and had mentioned Saturday that she needed to ensure she performed freely, noting that “nobody has ever performed nicely after they’ve been enjoying scared, and I believe that is been my behavior earlier than, to only type of attempt to grasp on to it.”
Her consistency finally made the distinction as Stark stayed forward all through the day and held off the challengers.
This nonetheless was as shut as Korda has come to successful a U.S. Ladies’s Open. Her greatest earlier end was a tie for eighth place in 2022 at Pine Needles.
Korda birdied Nos. 7 and eight, however missed a 9-foot birdie putt on No. 9 that might have tied her for the lead. Her birdie try on No. 9 got here minutes after Stark’s bogey-free streak ended at 21 on No. 7.
Stark then prolonged her result in three by making a 14-foot birdie putt on No. 11 instantly after Korda missed a par putt of just below 5 ft at No. 13.
Korda, Shibuno and Takeda received inside two strokes of Stark with birdies on the par-5 14th, although Korda missed a 14-foot eagle putt and Shibuno missed an eagle try from 9½ ft.
Stark then made a birdie of her personal on No. 14 to regain her three-stroke benefit at 9 below. She bogeyed the final two holes.
Her enjoying accomplice, Julia Lopez Ramirez, fell out of rivalry early on her strategy to 79 that left her tied for nineteenth. Lopez Ramirez had a triple bogey on 18.
