Ludvig Aberg rides two eagles to Players Championship lead
· Yahoo Sports
Visit asg-reflektory.pl for more information.
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. – Fueled by a blistering front nine that included two eagles, Sweden's Ludvig Aberg charged two strokes clear of the field in the second round of The Players Championship on Friday.
The 26-year-old, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour whose most recent victory came at last year's Genesis Invitational, fired a superb 9-under-par 63 on a sun-splashed afternoon at TPC Sawgrass for a 12-under total of 132.
That left him two strokes ahead of two-time major champion Xander Schauffele, who had set the pace in the morning wave with a 7-under 65.
Cameron Young was alone in third at 9 under, after carding a six-birdie 67, while Canada's Corey Conners (67) and 2021 Players champion Justin Thomas (68) were a further stroke back at 8 under.
Aberg, whose best PGA Tour finish this season was a tie for third at last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, made an electrifying start to the second round. He birdied the first, eagled the par-5 second by sinking a 15-foot putt and picked up further shots at the third and fourth.
He then added another eagle at the par-5 ninth, where he chipped in from light rough just short of the green, to reach the turn at a sensational 7 under and in a tie for the lead with Schauffele.
Aberg briefly moved one ahead with a two-putt birdie at the par-5 11th before slipping back with a bogey at the par-4 15th. Undaunted though, he responded with additional birdies at the par-5 16th and the par-4 18th, where he struck his approach to eight feet, to end his day with a two-stroke advantage.
"Overall I felt like I was striking it quite nice," said Aberg. "I kind of got away with a few tee balls in the middle of the round where I wasn't hitting the fairways necessarily. ... But overall, I feel like my iron play has been pretty good lately, the last couple weeks. Super pleased with the way I was hitting it."
Aberg, who resides in Ponte Vedra Beach, believed that having TPC Sawgrass as his home course could give him an edge.
"I play here every now and then," he said, smiling. "I've seen the golf course in probably every wind possible, which I know this week we're going to have some different winds. Is there an advantage to it? Maybe. But Sawgrass is also a golf course where you have to execute golf shots, and I love the golf course because it's right in front of you. It's very straightforward, but you still have to hit the shots."
Schauffele finished his round with a flourish, making birdies on his last two holes. The world's 10th-ranked player, who started out on the back nine, rolled in a 38-foot putt at the par-3 eighth and then got up and down from just in front of the green at the par-5 ninth.
"It's always easy to be aggressive from the fairway here," said Schauffele, who hit all 14 fairways during his round. "There's quite a few wedges if you're able to hit it in some sort of tight spots, which we were able to do today."
A 10-time PGA Tour winner who secured the PGA Championship and the Open Championship in 2024, Schauffele is seeking his first victory of this year.
"I'm definitely hitting a lot of really good golf shots," said the 32-year-old, whose best finish this season was a tied for seventh at The Genesis Invitational. "2024 was a year full of really good results, and right now I think we're a little bit more focused on the process bit of it and trying to make sure things are sort of ironed out and in a decent spot. After that, you go and compete."
World No. 2 and defending champion Rory McIlroy, looking to shrug off a back injury that led to his withdrawal from last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, experienced another day of frustration with a 1-under 71. That left him at 1 over, just one stroke inside the cut line.
"I wish I was further up the leaderboard," McIlroy said after ending his round with a two-putt birdie at the par-5 ninth. "I felt like I played well enough today to be up the leaderboard, I just couldn't get a putt to drop. I feel like I hit the ball a bit better today than I did yesterday, so hopefully I've done enough to get into the weekend and have another two days at it."
Top-ranked American Scottie Scheffler, bidding for a third victory at The Players Championship, was also out of sorts for much of the second round as he eked out a 73 to finish level with McIlroy.
Scheffler ran up a three-putt bogey at the par-5 16th after missing a birdie attempt from 11 feet and a par putt from just 2-1/2 feet. However, he somewhat redeemed himself with a birdie at the par-4 18th, where he struck a wedge approach to nine feet and rolled in the putt.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Ludvig Aberg rides two eagles to Players Championship lead