Ludvig Åberg found his rhythm on Friday at the US Open and became the sole leader after 36 holes. He shot a 1-under 69 to move to 5-under overall and has a one-stroke lead heading into Saturday’s third round.
Once again, the former Texas Tech Red Raider is in contention for a major in 2024. He played exceptionally well at Augusta National, another tough golf course. Åberg finished runner-up to world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler at this year’s Masters.
But he made some mistakes down the stretch, especially on the 11th hole, which cost him a chance at a green jacket. As such, Åberg will have the opportunity to put those experiences into practice this weekend in North Carolina.
“I think Augusta showed me that I could be in that position,” Åberg said.
“It was more of a justification that you can be there and compete on a Sunday. The golf course also played very difficult. It required a lot of patience and discipline, like this one. I feel like those experiences I had in April were great. Hopefully, we will find some similarities between them.”
The young Swede continued to make progress at Pinehurst No. 2 on Friday. He remained extremely consistent, hitting 12 of 14 fairways and finding 14 of 18 greens. The 24-year-old has only missed two fairways and six greens in the first two days.
To this point, he leads the field in both total strokes gained and strokes gained off the tee.
However, on Friday he did not have his best day, although he recorded three birdies and two bogeys in his round. Still, his round was consistent enough to push him up the leaderboard and into the solo lead.
“I felt like I did very well today,” Åberg said.
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Photo by Tracy Wilcox/PGA Tour via Getty Images
“It was a great challenge and it is not an easy golf course. I felt like we stayed very disciplined, very patient and tried to hit our targets all the time and see how many good shots we can make today and see where it ends up in the end.”
He seeks to become the first player in 110 years to win in his debut at the US Open. Francis Ouimet did it in 1913 at The Country Club in Brookline as an amateur, which many say put the US Open on the map. Other experts consider Ouimet’s victory to be the most important victory in the history of professional golf.
However, the US Open has become golf’s toughest test, and Pinehurst is taking no prisoners.
“I think a U.S. Open is supposed to be difficult,” he said.
“It’s supposed to be complicated. It’s supposed to challenge every aspect of your game, and I think it’s really doing that. But I’m very lucky with the way things have turned out the last few days and hopefully we can keep it up.”
Despite its difficulty, Åberg knows this route quite well. He played as an amateur for Pinehurst in 2019, but failed to advance beyond the round of 32. That experience taught him a lot about how to approach this difficult golf course.
“I think the way those greens are when it gets really firm, there really aren’t any bailout areas; you have to take the golf shots and see where it ends up,” Åberg said.
“If you don’t make it, you’re going to have a really tough short game shot. “I think it’s a challenging golf course, but again, that’s how it was supposed to be.”
Åberg and Bryson DeChambeau will form the final pairing of the third round of the US Open.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, be sure to follow us. @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter. @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
