GOYANG-SI, South Korea — It’s not often that athletes let the world in, but when asked how life changed after winning a major championship, Maja Stark told the stark truth.
She got too comfortable.
“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,” said Stark while competing for Sweden at the Hanwha LifePlus International Crown, adding, “I feel like it took a few months to really come back and gain the motivation back that I felt before in my career.”
Stark, 25, has admitted that she went into the 80th U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills thinking more about maintaining her status on tour than winning. A major championship victory comes with a five-year guaranteed tour card, which means that feeling of having to constantly chase suddenly wasn’t there anymore.
After Erin Hills, she missed the cut in five of her next seven starts, including two majors.
Things didn’t really start to turn around for Stark until September, when she took a share of fifth at the Kroger Queen City Championship. Throughout the summer, she leaned on her sports psychologist for help.
“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,” said Stark.
“I had to move on, and I was like, OK, 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.”
As Stark relayed her feelings during a pre-tournament press conference, Lydia Ko, who was sitting beside her, nodded along.
As the interpreter translated in Korean, Ko leaned over and started whispering to Stark, prompting an obvious next question from the press: Lydia, can you relate?
Ko said she felt the same after the Rio Olympics in 2016.
“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,” said Ko.
“You play a practice round and it doesn’t really feel different to any other week, and you get the week going, and I obviously medaled, and in six days, the whole mental preparation and the time and sweat and everything you and your whole team put in for that moment is gone.
“That was the best second-place finish I’ve ever had in my life, and it was such a high, so I feel I can relate to Maja. One of my biggest goals is to win the U.S. Women’s Open, so I can only imagine what it feels like, but I think us two wouldn’t be the only two players that have gone through feelings like this.”
Ko went on to commend Stark for being so open about the hard things, particularly the mental battles that go on behind the scenes.
All five major champions of 2025 are in the field this week at New Korea Country Club, and each have processed the feat in their own way. A total of 144 players in the whole history of women’s golf have hoisted a major championship trophy, so it’s a relatively small club of women who could possibly relate.
Even fewer who would say the quiet part out loud.
“I know it’s great that somebody like Maja can come forward and pretty much open it up and say, it is normal. We feel all these things,” said Ko. “Even though 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, it’s hard as much as it’s good.
“I think sometimes you only see the bright side of the rainbow.”
