THE CHEVRON CHAMPIONSHIP

April 19, 2024

Maja Stark

The Club at Carlton Woods

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Maja Stark after her second round at The Chevron Championship. Really solid 3-under par today. What was maybe the difference from today and yesterday?

MAJA STARK: I hit my irons better today. And the woods. Pretty much everything was just better. Felt like not much was changed from yesterday in terms of what I was thinking.

It was more just I found something on the range when I was practicing in morning and that's working, so yeah.

Q. You've been playing really solid golf lately. Do you feel that way sometimes? Because it seems solid on the scorecard and you've finished in the top 10 a couple times already. Does it feel solid for you though, or does it feel like something is missing or what?

MAJA STARK: Yesterday it felt awful. Didn't really hit my irons very really. But I had 25 putts, so that helps. But it feels good. I feel like I'm working on the right things and like my putting has become way better from a couple months ago. Some things get worse and some things get better.

I feel like, yeah, today I think I played pretty solid actually.

Q. What is it about major championship golf that might change your mindset or your feeling of capabilities during the week?

MAJA STARK: I think it's easier to move on from a bad shot or bad break. You know, these greens you can get a really good break from a bad shot or really bad from a good shot.

So having that patience is not something that we usually need or -- well, it's easier here and that's what you need on these courses.

I feel like I come into these types of courses just thinking that it's going to be harder and everyone is going to struggle. I think that's what's happening now. I mess up a lot; I messed up today a lot.

But I was able to stay calm and just kind of save myself and hit the shots that I needed to when I was in trouble.

Q. How are you able to mentally recover from maybe some of the missteps? Is it just a shift in mindset or how do you do that?

MAJA STARK: No, I feel like I put up as like my process goal that me and my coach work on this week to not react to shots.

So I'm not allowed to swear this week. No hitting the ground with the club, nothing like that. I feel like that just takes me out of what just happened and I think about what I'm doing moving forward. I talked to Peter Hanson, former player. He works with Ludvig. He said instead of saying just have patience to Ludvig, him and his mental coach worked on saying just keep playing, because then you kind of just put your head like on the next shot.

And I think that has been way better for me just both with staying calm with what I'm doing now, but also being aggressive on the next shot.

Q. Is that frustration an obstacle you had to overcome since you joined the LPGA Tour?

MAJA STARK: Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, we play harder courses here than what I was used to. You know, when you're used to having more made cuts and Top 10s and everything you kind of expect it, but then the competition is just so much harder out here than it was on my previous tour.

So, yeah, and I just tended to get stressed a lot when I messed up and then that leads to me making more and more mistakes.

So this week it's just been about being calm with what I'm doing, and if I mess up, that's fine. Take it one shot at a time. I gained a lot of confidence from that because I saved some up-and-downs from really bad places this week, so I know I can do it now.

Q. How do you keep that just-keep-playing mentality going into the next 36 holes?

MAJA STARK: I think I'm just going to try to stay aggressive with it, just do what I've been doing lately. Just take a deep breath before every shot and remind myself of what I'm doing. That's been going well so far.