When the final scores were tallied on Sunday afternoon at the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally, it was ultimately Sweden’s Maja Stark who hoisted the Harton S. Semple trophy, becoming the first European to win this major championship since Annika Sorenstam in 2006.
It was a nearly perfect final-round effort from Stark, who carded an even-par 72 after holding the 54-hole lead at 7-under overall, what was just the second time that she has ever held a third-round lead or co-lead on the LPGA Tour and her first time doing so since the 2023 Buick LPGA Shanghai.
Stark’s first birdie of the round came on the par-3 6th hole and moved her to 8-under, two strokes ahead of 2025 Chevron Championship winner Mao Saigo and 2019 AIG Women’s Open champion Hinako Shibuno. She bogeyed seven to slip back to 7-under, but she held onto her lead, now sitting one ahead of Saigo, Shibuno and Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda, who had birdied holes seven and eight to climb to 6-under and into a tie for second.
Stark got back to 8-under after rolling in a 14-footer for birdie on 11 and sat three ahead of Korda, Shibuno and now Rio Takeda – who had also birdied 11 to move to 5-under – with seven holes to play. She nearly made eagle on the par-5 14th hole but left her putt just a couple of revolutions short, tapping in for birdie to climb to 9-under and remain three ahead of Korda and Takeda, who were then tied for second at 6-under.
She stumbled a bit with a bogey on 17 to drop back to 8-under, but when Takeda bogeyed 17 and Korda bogeyed 18, Stark came to the 18th hole at Erin Hills with a three-shot lead. And even though she would have preferred a par to the bogey she ultimately made on the closing par 5 in Wisconsin, it was all Stark needed to become a first-time major winner and join Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann as the third Swede to win the U.S. Women’s Open.
“No, not really,” Stark said with a laugh when asked in the trophy ceremony if she had ever dreamed this big. “It feels so surreal, and it felt like it was so far away just a couple of weeks ago. Just last week, my confidence was so low, and then I had a special friend tell me that you need to be confident. You need to trust yourself, and that’s what I try to do. I try to make myself and everyone on my team proud.”
Neumann and Sorenstam both reached out to Stark ahead of the final round, wishing her good luck and telling their younger counterpart to “bring it home,” texts Stark said were “already cool” to get before the final round even began. She is the sixth different player from Sweden to capture any major championship on the LPGA Tour, joining Neumann, Sorenstam, Helen Alfredsson, Anna Nordqvist and Pernilla Lindberg as Swedish major champions, and is the first from her country to hoist a major trophy since Nordqvist won the AIG Women’s Open at Carnoustie in 2021.
Stark is the third different player from Sweden to win on the LPGA Tour this season, alongside Madelene Sagstrom, who captured the T-Mobile LPGA Match Play presented by MGM Rewards in Las Vegas, and Ingrid Lindblad, who became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro and was standing by to celebrate Stark on the 18th green.
With the $2.4 million winner’s check, the 25-year-old has nearly doubled her career earnings, which totaled $2.8 million before this week at Erin Hills, and Stark is now the seventh highest-earning Swede in LPGA Tour history, with $5,247,784 in official money. When asked what she planned to spend the money on to celebrate, Stark wasn’t quite sure what she would do with one of the largest paychecks on the LPGA Tour, but she does have one idea in mind.
“I didn’t even know that,” said Stark with a giggle about the size of her winner’s check. “Maybe move out of my studio apartment can be one thing. I don’t know. I’m very happy with what I have in my life right now. I think just having the security for the future, I think I’ll just be very happy about that.”
Takeda and Korda finished in a tie for second at 5-under overall, which is each athlete’s career-best showing in this major championship. Korda was working hard to collect her first LPGA Tour title since the 2024 ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican and her third career major victory coming down the stretch at Erin Hills, but her closing bogey dashed those hopes, leaving Korda just a couple of shots away from the win she maybe wants the most.
“I’ll have hopefully a lot more attempts, but when you come so close and you kind of feel that adrenaline coming down 18, the one thing that you want to do is hold the trophy at the end of the day. And I’m not,” said Korda. “But it’s okay. I’ll have more opportunities, hopefully.”
Korea’s Hye-Jin Choi, People’s Republic of China native Ruoning Yin and Japan’s Saigo finished in a tie for fourth at 4-under overall, while Epson Tour member Hailee Cooper and major champion Hinako Shibuno tied for seventh at 3-under. A trio of LPGA Tour winners, Ariya Jutanugarn, Angel Yin and Linn Grant, rounded out the top 10, tying for ninth with four-day totals of 2-under.
Englishwoman Lottie Woad finished as the low amateur and earned her 17th point in the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway point standings with her made cut at the 80th U.S. Women’s Open.
