Even as Ludvig Åberg was winning the Genesis Invitational Sunday at Torrey Pines, making a birdie on the last hole to beat Maverick McNealy by one stroke, it was hard not to get the sense that this is just the beginning.
It was the second PGA Tour victory for the 25-year-old Swede and Åberg’s trajectory seems bound for the stratosphere. His combination of graceful athleticism and older-than-his-years mentality has already made Åberg one of the game’s most impressive players.
Four strokes behind with six holes remaining, Åberg was brilliant down the finishing stretch on one of the tour’s most difficult courses, shooting a closing 66 to finish at 12-under-par 276 and accept the trophy from tournament host Tiger Woods.
“I was walking down one of the last holes and I told (caddie) Joe (Skovron) that this Sunday is a little more fun than the last one we had here.”
Ludvig Åberg
A seven-foot par putt on the 12th hole – when Åberg trailed McNealy by four – proved to be critical.
“To stay four back I kind of need to make this,” Åberg said of the putt. “Then I went off and made a couple of birdies. It really is a special feeling and I’m proud of how I fought today.”
At Torrey Pines three weeks earlier, Åberg was the first-round leader in the Farmers Insurance Open, but he awoke feeling ill Friday evening and was barely able to finish the final 36 holes, shooting 74-79 on the weekend.
The illness lasted for more than a week. Åberg played the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am the week after Farmers but withdrew after an opening 77.
Åberg said he lost eight pounds while sick.
“That’s not the right way to lose weight,” he said.
Initially, Åberg thought he was dealing with food poisoning but then he dealt with a prolonged fever.
“I was walking down one of the last holes and I told (caddie) Joe (Skovron) that this Sunday is a little more fun than the last one we had here,” Åberg said.
Needing a birdie at the par-5 finishing hole to win, Åberg hit his 7-wood second shot to the back of the green, forcing him to two-putt from 73 feet. He left his first putt six feet from the hole then drilled the winner into the center.
It looked for much of Sunday as if McNealy would pick up his second victory since November. He played his first 11 holes 8-under par to rocket into the lead but a bogey at the 14th hole and a par at the finishing hole were costly.
“It’s more than I could have asked for at the start of the day,” said McNealy, who shot 64 Sunday. “I got on a roll early. When you get on a roll, you don’t want to get off it. I tried to keep it going as long as possible.”
Scottie Scheffler finished T3 after a final-round 66 that had him sniffing the lead for a time on the back nine. The damage was done, however, on Saturday when Scheffler shot 76, his highest score in three years.
In three starts this year since coming back from a minor hand injury, Scheffler has finished T9, T25 and T3. Coming off a season with seven official wins and nine overall, that’s not up to his expectations.
“I think I feel pretty bad about where I’m at,” Scheffler said when asked about the state of his game.
“I’m trying to give myself a little bit of grace and some patience kind of getting back into the swing of things. I did some things in the last few weeks that I’m happy with and definitely some things that I need to improve on.”
Ron Green Jr.