When you’re on a roll in golf, you might as well ride the wave as long as possible.
Maja Stark is hoping her recent wave of good play doesn’t stop anytime soon.
Stark, who comes into the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro on the heels of her best-career major championship finish at The Chevron Championship, fired a bogey-free 65 in the morning wave at Wilshire Country Club and is firmly in the mix, again, on the LPGA Tour.
Stark has now gone 44 holes on the LPGA Tour without making a bogey.
“It feels good. Don’t jinx it now,” she said Thursday in Los Angeles. “Obviously that’s what we want – I feel like I’ve just been more patient. Haven’t made any dumb mistakes. Just taking my medicine where I need to.”
Stark kept her tidy efforts going from The Woodlands to Hollywood, making two birdies in her first nine before turning on the jets for her second nine at Wilshire and making four birdies in a seven-hole stretch. She hit all 14 fairways in the first round and missed just three greens.
Grace Kim held the early lead after a 7-under 64. Stark sits just one shot back.
Stark admitted she was “so tired” when she arrived in L.A. after the marathon major week and “barely” practiced before she teed it up Thursday morning. She finished second alone at The Chevron, just two back of Nelly Korda’s winning mark. Stark’s previous best major result was a T9 at last year’s U.S. Women’s Open.
Along with her second-place result Sunday, Stark finished T3 just a few weeks ago at the Ford Championship presented by KCC. Things are clicking, she said, and there’s something – or someone – that isn’t going to be in her way this week.
“Nelly is always in front, so I don’t know,” Stark said with a smile. “I feel like I'm just playing solid. There is still a lot of things I think I could have done differently these two tournaments where it's been going really well.
“It just so depends on what everyone else is doing. If someone is having the week of their life, that's good for them. I'm just trying to learn from every round I have.”
Stark said the, well, stark contrast to her approach to things over the past few weeks has been how well she’s been managing things mentally.
“So, so much more confident in my game,” Stark said. “I still chickened out on a couple shots today which is just like me. I feel like I’ve been better at not chickening out as much. Then just knowing I can be patient and not have to chase birdies to actually make them, because I think when I’m chasing birdies, that’s when I make my mistakes.”
Stark’s lone victory on the LPGA Tour came in August 2022 at the ISPS Handa World Invitational, which she won by five shots over Allisen Corpuz. She had six top-10 finishes a year ago – including a T2 at the season opener at Lake Nona – but came into this year struggling, she admitted last week at The Chevron.
“Two months ago, it did not look likes this. It was actually terrible,” Stark said Sunday at The Woodlands about the state of her game after the calendar turned to 2024. “Nothing really was working for me, and then I feel like I really just analyzed everything and figured it out and got some great help from my coaches […] a lot about technique. It was kind of a mess earlier this year.”
Stark said Wilshire is “kind of similar” to Carlton Woods as there are a few pins she couldn’t go after like at The Chevron. Patience is key, she said, and concentrating on hitting to the bigger spaces of the greens will be something she’ll focus on over the balance of the week.
With a runner-up finish in her pocket and more good play through the first round at the JM Eagle LA Championship, Stark’s hopeful that her solid play means another solid result.
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