As fortnights go, they don’t get much better than the one that Maja Stark has just experienced.
Head back a little over two weeks, and the 21-year-old was yet to experience her first win as a golfing professional, but she woke up today with two victories under her belt, after waltzing to the Creekhouse Ladies Open title this weekend – playing some scintillating golf along the way.
That win followed a first success as a professional the week before, as she took home the trophy from the PGA Championship By Trelleborgs Kommun LET Access Series event after another strong showing, and proving she can mix it with the best on Tour so early on in her professional career, Stark is keen to continue that upwards trend in the future.
“It feels amazing, I don’t think I’ve really comprehended it yet,” Stark said. “It’s always terrifying leading a competition, and I’m sure it will be even more terrifying as time goes on, but winning has given me confidence to know that I can do it and pull it together for a whole round and put on some good golf even though I can feel my heart beating on every single shot.”
Victory in Åhus came in just her third event on the LET, having performed valiantly in the Scandinavian Mixed hosted by Henrik and Annika earlier in the year, as well as in the Didriksons Skafto Open in the last week of August where she finished a respectable T17 amid the tough conditions on the Swedish East coast.
It was a remarkable turnaround for Stark at Kristianstad Golf Club where she finished the first round six shots off the lead after carding a level-par score of 72 in Thursday’s action, before turning on the style on the Friday to put herself into the ascendency heading into the weekend.
Eight birdies in her last 11 holes on the second day gave us a glimpse of what we can expect to see many times in the future from the talented Swede – who has taken up LET membership after her impressive win – as she went from six shots down to two shots ahead of the field within the space of a day with a score of 65 (-7).
From leading the field heading into the weekend it could have been easy for many a player to crumble, but Stark held her nerve on days three and four to keep ahead of the field, and posted two successive rounds of 71 (-1) to keep her nearest challengers at bay and get her hands on the trophy.
“The first day I was pretty frustrated,” Stark admitted. “I made six birdies but then I made four bogeys and a double, so I felt like I did have the game but I just needed to not do the misses, and that’s what was key on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“On the final day I was a bit nervous after my bogey on 17, nervous that I was going to mess up and mess up big time, but I hit solid shots on the last hole so I was more calm on the 18th than I had been all day.
“It’s so great to win and become a member of the LET, I only had one more competition planned this year because I couldn’t get into anything else, so it means so much to me.”
As dominant as Stark was in Åhus, she was kept honest by her company in the final group of the day, with Race to Costa del Sol leader Atthaya Thitikul and compatriot Linn Grant a constant presence in her rear-view mirror on Saturday and Sunday.
A flurry of birdies from Grant put her within two shots of the lead at one point heading down the back nine, before two late bogeys saw her drop back, although she still had enough to secure a second successive second-placed finish, having done so in Skafto last week in her first tournament as a professional.
The two young Swedes were rarely seen without the other around the course this week; whether that be on the putting green, the driving range, or out on course, with the duo in the final group for both Saturday and Sunday.
Stark and Grant are well aware of each other’s qualities on course, having both come up through the Swedish youth teams together, as well as competing in the 2017 PING Junior Solheim Cup team in Des Moines with four more of their compatriots.
And from teammates four years ago to adversaries these days, the duo look likely to be competing at the top of leaderboards together for years to come, and the Creekhouse Ladies Open champion is looking forward to that prospect, and knows that experience four years ago is something that helped her to secure her first professional victory.
“As much as you want to win yourself and you want to play well, it was really fun to play against Linn and when she made two birdies in a row it made me realise I had to play better, but it was so fun to play with a teammate,” Start said.
“I think I had a lot of pressure to make the team because we had a goal in the Swedish team for all six of us to make it into the PING Junior Solheim Cup, and I was always on the edge of making it, but then I got an invite which was brilliant.
“That whole week was the best week of my life at the time, and it was so much fun seeing all these people that I’d looked up to for so long, and being on the same team as people that I respected so much and such good golfers.
“After that I felt that I could play well under pressure, I just had to focus on the right things.”
