Ludvig Aberg’s meteoric rise in his first year as a professional golfer has included two wins at the Premier Scramble, a runner-up finish at the Masters and now a midway lead at the U.S. Open.
Aberg, ranked sixth, fought back to a one-under-par 69 on Friday to take a one-shot lead after 36 holes on the treacherous Pinehurst course, the latest success for the 24-year-old Swede who is considered one of golf's rising stars.
“It’s not something I think about all the time, but sometimes I have to stop and think about how lucky I am to be at this level,” Aberg said.
“It’s definitely an exciting time for me to be able to play in these games and to be able to play with these players that I’ve watched on TV for so long, yeah.”
Aberg decided to turn professional last June when he was ranked No. 1 amateur golfer in the world and made his professional debut at the PGA Canadian Open, finishing 25th.
Aberg won his first professional title at the European Masters on the DP World Tour last September, then won his first US PGA title at the RSM Classic last November.
He then made his major championship debut at Augusta National Golf Club in April, finishing second. Now he has a great chance to win his first major championship.
“Augusta National proved to me that I was capable of doing this,” Aberg said. “It was more of a validation, like, yes, you can actually go out there and play on Sunday.”
“I think April was a great experience. Hopefully we can draw some similarities from it.”
He stressed that the U.S. Open should be tough, and he knew Pinehurst would be tough, too, because he played there in the U.S. Amateur, and he said it was probably the toughest course he had played before this week.
“The U.S. Open is supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be tricky, it's supposed to challenge every aspect of your game,” Aberg said. “I felt like it did that.”
The Pinehurst Course features domed greens with long runoff areas replaced by dirt and weeds and dense rough.
“Because of the shape of these greens, when it gets really firm, since you don’t really have any rescue areas, you can just play your golf shot and see where it ends up,” Aberg said.
“If you don't get that going, your short game is going to be very tricky. It's a challenging golf course, but that's how it's supposed to be.”
– Psychological Tests –
Aberg said staying calm under pressure is crucial to success at Pinehurst.
“It's a very demanding golf course, not only physically but mentally. It takes a lot of discipline and patience to get on those greens,” Aberg said.
“I have to play with a huge acceptance. It's not possible to be perfect all the time. It's very likely that all the players out there will have difficulties at some point in the game, whenever it comes, it's just one of those times.
“All I'm trying to do is hit the ball as hard as I can. If I do that, great. But if not, we just have to deal with it and get back to where we were as quickly as possible.”
Aberg's secret weapon was having his swing coach come to Pinewood from Sweden this week.
“I don't see him that much. We've done some work,” Aberg said.
“You're always going to have things in your swing that need improvement. We worked on those tendencies. At least we know how to get it back to where we want it to be.”
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