Last week at Muirfield, Sweden’s Maja Stark asked herself “What would Tiger do?” throughout the AIG Women’s British Open. It was a call to be both aggressive and fearless. After a final-round 79, her instructor encouraged her to just be Maja.
Turns out 22-year-old Stark can find great success without channeling Woods.
A 10-birdie day and course-record 63 landed Stark a five-shot victory at 20 under Sunday at the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland. The event, which is co-sanctioned by the LPGA, DP World Tour and LET, gave Stark the chance to immediately accept LPGA membership for the rest of 2022 and 2023, which she did.
“That was all I came here for,” said Stark. “Like I just wanted that winner’s category. I was so nervous. I hate qualifying. It’s great that I don’t have to do that again.”
Maja Stark has accepted @lpga membership, which means we’ll be seeing the new rookie pull off this kind of action a lot more often! https://t.co/BrelOrSnLz
— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) August 14, 2022
While Stark’s sparkling play in the final round earned her the title, Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson posted a course-record of his own, a 9-under 61, on Thursday at Galgorm Castle on the strength of two eagles and capped off a wire-to-wire victory in the men’s division.
The men and women competed for equal prize money in two separate 72-hole stroke play events. The two fields split a purse of $3 million.
Ferguson’s final-round 69 put him at 12 under for the tournament and two shots ahead of compatriot and friend Connor Syme. It marks Ferguson’s second victory on the DP World Tour.
“My whole family’s life revolves around me playing golf,” said Ferguson. “Their happiness seems like it’s all about me and my golf. It’s been a good year, and obviously you get times where it doesn’t go so well, so I think you really need to appreciate things where you’re picking up trophies or you’re making cuts and you’re doing all right because it’s a really tough game.”
Ferguson did note, however, that he banned his parents from coming this week because he needed to focus. He was surprised by how calm he felt on Sunday.
“I said to my mum last night,” said Ferguson, “no matter what, if I win or lose, I’m going to smile at the cameras so everyone is feeling happy at home.
“Tried my best to do that.”
Ireland’s Leona Maguire, the highest-ranked player in the field this week, finished 10th. The former Duke star said last week at Muirfield, where she took a share of fourth, took a lot out of her.
“I didn’t really have any ‘A’ game this week,” said Maguire, “so squeezed a bit out of it in the end, and always nice to finish with a good round on Sunday.”
American rookie Allisen Corpuz finished a career-best second with birdies on the last two holes. Georgia Hall of England came in solo third, followed by Linn Grant.
Stark and Grant have pushed each other since they turned professional, and Grant was there to celebrate with her friend when she walked off the green at Galgorm Castle. Earlier this summer, Grant became the first female to win on the DP World Tour when she beat the field of men and women by nine strokes at the Scandinavian Mixed.
On Saturday, the two young Swedes played together and set a goal of trying to make a combined 16 birdies. Stark shot 69 in that round.
Stark, a former Oklahoma State standout who left college after two seasons, has now won seven times since turning pro nearly one year ago. She now has five-time LPGA winner and Solheim stalwart Sophie Gustafson, a fellow Swede, on her bag. Stark’s title marks the 100th victory on the LET for Swedish players.
“I did not expect this at all,” said Stark. “If you told me a year ago that I would have a win on the LPGA, I would not have believed it.”
