PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The biggest challenge for Ludvig Aberg was finding satisfaction in a three-shot lead Saturday at The Players Championship instead of wondering how much larger it could have been.
Aberg had only two bogeys on his card all week and was four shots ahead of Michael Thorbjornsen when he stood in the fairway on the par-5 16th hole, 193 yards away with a 7-iron in his hand. He had an 8-foot birdie putt on the island-green 17th hole. He smashed his drive on the daunting 18th that set up a 25-foot birdie attempt.
Par. Par. Bogey.
Aberg still managed a 1-under 71 thanks largely to his third eagle of the week with an 18-foot putt on the par-5 11th. He was three shots clear of Michael Thorbjornsen, a rival in college and now a neighbor in the Ponte Vedra Beach area.
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“Definitely would have loved to come out of 16 and 17 with at least one birdie, and then obviously the three-putt on 18 kind of stings, annoys me a little bit,” Aberg said. “But overall, I started the day with a two-shot lead and ended with a three, so that’s a positive.”
If nothing else it was reminder nothing comes easily on the TPC Sawgrass even when it looks that way, and the final 18 holes isn’t always a sprint to the finish.
“It’s all about executing,” Aberg said. “You’re going to get punished if you don’t, which is a fun way to play golf.”
Fun?
Aberg smiled and mouthed the word, “Fun.”
Aberg was at 13-under 203 and will be in the final group with Thorbjornsen, who also took up shop at the TPC Sawgrass when he got out of college. They are friends who play often, just as they did as two of the most elite college players. Both were No. 1 in the PGA Tour University ranking in consecutive years to earn PGA Tour cards.
Thorbjornsen made up ground with a 67 to land in the final group as he tries to become only the third player — and first since Craig Perks in 2002 — to win The Players in his first try.
“I don’t think I have to change too much, especially on courses like this,” Thorbjornsen said. “I think if you play some really steady golf you’ll run into some birdies. Does anyone have a bogey-free round either yesterday or today? I’m not too sure, but there aren’t many. So I think slow and steady wins the race, and we’re just going to play some solid golf.”
Cameron Young was Aberg’s biggest threat on the back nine, holing a 45-foot birdie putt on the par-3 13th and getting away with a wedge he hit a little heavy on the par-3 17th. It settled inside 2 feet away, the closest shot of the day.
“I was trying to land it 133 and I fatted it just a little bit and it went to a foot,” he said.
Two shots behind going to the 18th, the closing hole ate him up. Young tugged his drive just enough that it barely found the water down the left side. He pushed his third shot into the nasty, rough-covered moguls and chipped through the firm, fast green into a bunker. But he holed an 8-foot putt for double bogey and escaped with a 72 to leave him four shots behind.
“I cost myself two off the tee and I saved myself one with the putter,” he said of the 8-footer he made. “So it could have been worse. I drew a terrible lie right of the green, somewhere that it feels like you should have a decent chance to get up-and-down. Saved myself one with the putter is what I’m going to take away from it.”
Big blunders cost so many others.
Justin Thomas, looking strong in his second tournament back from lower back surgery in November, went from the water to the rough and then over the green in making a triple bogey on the sixth hole. His tee shot on the reachable par-4 12th found the water. But he kept it together, had a pair of birdies later and salvaged a 72.
Thomas was at 8-under 208, five shots behind along with Matt Fitzpatrick (69), Brian Harman (69), Viktor Hovland (69), Corey Conners (72) and Xander Schauffele (74).
Schauffele was in the final group and managed only one birdie while hitting just eight greens. Fitzpatrick made double bogey on the 18th with a three-putt from 35 feet.
Young is at The Players for the fourth time and has never cracked the top 50, and yet his optimism was running high even after a double bogey to finish. That he felt he was still in the game said more about the give-and-take nature of the TPC Sawgrass than Aberg.
Aberg shot a 63 in the second round to take the lead. Thomas shot a 62 last year. Harman shot 64 on Friday and the best score Saturday was a 65 by Robert MacIntyre.
“Those number are out there, and no reason why I can’t be the one to shoot them,” Young said.
And so the final group is a pair of locals — one from Sweden by way of Texas Tech, the other from just outside Boston by way of Stanford. Neither plays the Stadium Course all that much because it’s rarely in the condition seen at The Players.
But they like the Stadium Course and know their way around, just not with so much at stake.
