5 lessons from the U.S. Women’s Open champ to shoot lower scores

Maja Stark’s win at the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open was a breakout performance for the then-25-year-old Swede. Already an LPGA winner, Solheim Cupper and Olympian, the win at Erin Hills marked yet another impressive accomplishment on her CV.

But the win came at an unforeseen cost.

“When I won, I kept thinking, Well, I’ve just done the biggest thing I’ll probably ever do in my career,” Stark says. “For weeks, maybe months, I couldn’t stop thinking about that week. And it made me lose some motivation. I didn’t really know what to chase next.”

The remainder of the season, Stark worked with her team to rediscover that motivation — and recapture the form that catapulted her to the title at Erin Hills.

Now in 2026, Stark continues to strive to get better every day. Here’s how she and her coach, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Joe Hallett, work on each facet of her game to grind out victories. 

1. How to make more putts

Joe: Maja has a great pre-shot routine on the greens. She’ll hold the ball in her right hand and picture herself rolling it to the hole. It’s a great way to get a sense of distance as well as see how the ball will react once it starts rolling toward the hole. It’s one thing to see the line — feeling it is what really pays off.

Maja: I do this either standing or in a crouched stance. What I think works best is if you do it in slow motion — perfect for setting the tempo for the upcoming stroke. During rounds, I only visualize this move, but on the practice green, I do it: roll a ball to the hole with my dominant hand and then putt from the same spot. Your tempo can’t help but improve.

2. How to save par every time

Joe: You’re not going to hit every green. Here’s where your short game can save you. Copy Maja. She uses a unique setup on finesse shots. She sets her feet close together and drops her trail foot back, creating what you’d call a “closed” stance. Very few golfers do this, and even fewer professionals, but it automatically sets her up to deliver the club on the appropriate path.

Maja: I use this setup because I feel it stabilizes my lower body and almost ensures that I motion the club on line or even slightly in-to-out compared to my body (not the target line). What you get is really good contact! If you truly want to get the right feel, set up like I do, but with your trail foot resting on its toe and hit a few shots. Then, go flat-footed. You won’t believe the results.

3. How to make more birdies

Joe: Like any pro, Maja works on technique in practice, aiming to improve her swing. But she ends each practice session by trying to narrow those myriad swing thoughts to a single feel or word. Otherwise, paralysis by analysis.

Maja: Keep any technical thoughts to your practice, but finish them with feel. And never approach any round without a plan for how you can best attack each hole. There’ll be plenty of targets; check the yardage book and look for a few you feel comfortable with and think of ways to get home with two different swings: a full shot and a partial shot. If you’re successful on both, well, you’re going to have a good day!

4. How to hit more greens

Joe: One area where Maja has made tremendous gains is her sequence going back on iron shots. She used to make the mistake of “whipping” the club too far to the inside on her takeaway [1], which led her to be a little “stuck” as she came back down into impact [2]. Now, she works on swinging the club straight back first and then winding up [3]. It starts a chain reaction that helps her deliver the club to the ball perfectly and is primed for pure ball compression [4].

Maja: Hopefully you can see the difference in my old and new takeaways, and how much more powerful and on plane I am as I approach impact. The key is to try to keep the clubhead outside my hands as I wind up. The hidden benefit is that, with my better delivery position, I have to do less work with my hands through the ball. Things are much more stable now. The result: less curve and more approach shots that land where I want them to.

5. How to drive it further

Joe: Maja is a powerful player off the tee. Working with the pros at PING, she’s been able to optimize her launch angle — a testament to the importance of getting fit for your gear. While Maja comfortably sits in the top 50 in driving distance since joining the LPGA, she’s never cracked that top 10. That doesn’t mean she lacks an extra gear when she really needs to let one fly. Maja gets her power from a big windup and forceful unwinding. When it all works out, her swing speed soars off the charts.

Maja: This is complex, and contrary to what any golfer has been taught: The backswing creates speed, not swinging for the fences on the way down. I focus on “lengthening” my driver swing as I motion back. Wider is better. A great way to get the correct feel is to place an alignment stick on your target line directly behind the ball. As you start back, try to keep your driver clubhead as close to the stick for as long as possible, as if you’re “painting the ground” as you start back. Instant width — and speed.