ERIN, Wis. (AP) — Maja Stark could tell pretty early Saturday that Erin Hills would provide much more of a challenge than it had in the first two days of the U.S. Women’s Open.
Yet she found a way to avoid the mistakes that befell so many other competitors during a brutal third round. Now the 25-year-old from Sweden is in position to earn the $2.4 million prize in the biggest event of the women’s golf season.
Stark shot a 2-under 70 to give her a 7-under 209 total and a one-shot advantage heading into the final round Sunday. Julia Lopez Ramirez of Spain was second after a 68, the best score of the day.
“I think I’m just going to try to play freely,” Stark said. “I think that no one has ever played well when they’ve been playing scared, and I think that’s been my habit before, to just kind of try to hang on to it.”
The Japanese trio of Rio Takeda (70), Hinako Shibuno (72) and second-round leader Mao Saigo (75) followed at 5 under. Top-ranked Nelly Korda was 4 under after a 73.
Speedier greens and tricker pin placements wreaked havoc with just about everyone on the course, leading to plenty of double bogeys and triple bogeys.
One example of this came on the par-4 15th, when Esther Henseleit’s eagle putt from 55 feet away rolled 90 feet beyond the hole and went into the rough. Henseleit ended up with a double bogey.
“It’s so hard because they tend to put holes that are right on the edges of the slopes, so you can see going into the grain and up until the hole, and then after the hole you just see that the grain is going the other way,” Stark said. “It’s just so hard to get the distances right. It’s really scary when you know if you putt this five feet by, then that’s gone.”
The struggles of the field helped Lopez Ramirez make a surprising surge less than three months after an appendectomy.
Lopez Ramirez hasn’t finished higher than a tie for 29th in any of her seven LPGA Tour appearances this season, though the 22-year-old rookie was the Southeastern Conference player of the year in 2023 and 2024 at Mississippi State.
“I do believe that obviously when you’re in college and you’re about to win an event you have the same nerves,” Lopez Ramirez said. “That’s the most you care in that moment. You just want to win that tournament.”
Saigo took a three-shot lead into the day but made three straight bogeys at Nos. 4-6 to drop into a tie for first. She made an 8 1/2-foot birdie putt on No. 12 to move back into sole possession of the lead, but Stark tied her with a 21 1/2-foot birdie on the par-3 16th. Saigo then bogeyed the last two to fall two back.
She said the pin placements caused her the biggest problems on Saturday.
“The first thing is I’d like to rest well and then tomorrow (come out) refreshed and I’d like to start from zero,” Saigo said through an interpreter.
Plenty of other contenders faced similar misfortune.
A Lim Kim, who entered Saturday in a six-way tie for second place, birdied No. 1 to get to 6 under, then went 7 over for the next four holes. Kim bogeyed No. 2, double-bogeyed No. 3, triple-bogeyed No. 4 and bogeyed No. 5. She ended up with a 77.
Jinhee Im birdied two of her first three holes to get to 6 under before she triple-bogeyed the par-4 fourth. Noh also was at 6 under before a double bogey on No. 3. Im ended up with a 79, and Noh shot 75.
Korda also struggled early before coming on strong late. Korda had a 40 on the front nine with four bogeys and no birdies, but rallied with three birdies on her last five holes.
“It’s just a golf course where you may not hit it in the right spot and it’ll go down 40 feet and instead of being almost tap-in range, now you have a 40-foot chip where it’s running off the back, as well,” Korda said. “You just know that your mentality is that you’re going to make mistakes, but you can also bounce back here.”
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