PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Ludvig Aberg had a dream start that carried him to a 9-under 63 and a two-shot lead Friday in The Players Championship. Scottie Scheffler had a clutch finish, but only to avoid missing the cut.
Aberg was 5 under through his opening four holes and motored his way around the TPC Sawgrass with one amazing shot after another. He chipped in twice, for birdie on No. 4 and for eagle on the par-5 ninth for a 29 to tie the front-nine record on the Stadium Course.
Even on the one chip he muffed, he limited the damage by holing an 8-foot putt for bogey.
A final birdie — the Swede made it look so easy — gave him a two-shot margin over Xander Schauffele, who hit all 14 fairways in his round of 65.
“I think my mind is very good when it’s simple, and when things are very easy, and that’s what I’ve felt like I’ve been able to do over the last couple of weeks,” Aberg said.
He was at 12-under 132 on the TPC Sawgrass he occasionally calls home, though Aberg had not played the Stadium Course this year until a practice round Tuesday. He chose Ponte Vedra Beach as home after finishing at Texas Tech.
The stress came late in the day with Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player who has the longest current cut streak on the PGA Tour at 69. He missed two birdie chances and then had into trouble in the rough on the 14th hole for a bogey. Then, he missed a 30-inch par putt on the par-5 16th.
That put him at 2 over, still having to face the island green and the hardest hole at Sawgrass.
Scheffler found land on the 17th for par. Standing on the 18th tee, he was 14 shots out of the lead and anything but par or better would have sent him home from a tournament on the weekend for the first time since August 2022.
He drilled 3-wood down the middle, hit his approach to 8 feet and made birdie for a 73.
Also making the cut with a few nervous moments was Rory McIlroy, whose back is getting better by the day but whose putter is ailing. McIlroy birdied the par-5 ninth at the end of his 71 to make sure he’d be playing the weekend. He and Scheffler, Nos. 1 and 2 in the world, were at 1-over 145.
Schauffele’s lone bogey came on a careless three-putt bogey on the par-3 13th, his fourth hole of the day, when he missed a putt just over 2 feet. The rest of his round was rock solid, and the two-time major champion is starting to build some momentum.
He wasn’t aware he hit every fairway until it was mentioned to him.
“Definitely nice to hit all of them, especially on this property,” Schauffele said. “For the most part I felt like I was in control and felt like I was attacking the golf course versus playing defensive.”
Sawgrass allowed for that on a gorgeous day of sunshine, a light wind and greens that were receptive, ideal for scoring on a course that provides low rounds for those who avoided big trouble.
Cameron Young, who contended at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, had a 67 and was three shots behind. Young is a big talent who finally broke through for his first PGA Tour title last summer, and then was America’s best in a losing Ryder Cup cause in his home state of New York.
The Players has been a mystery to him, though. He has yet to finish in the top 50 the three times in four years that he made the cut. But he was dialed in on a course he described as “tricky.”
“I feel if you’re not decisive, if you’re unsure of what you want to do, it can really kind of rear its head at you,” Young said. “The holes where we’re strictly just trying to get it in the fairway … I didn’t hit all of them, but I made a bunch of really good golf swings. And I feel like that kind of wins out over here.”
Justin Thomas followed his 79-79 return from back surgery at Bay Hill with a 68-68 start at The Players. He was at 8-under 136, along with Corey Conners (67).
The highlight for Thomas was following a bad miss left of the green on the par-5 11th — the pin was to the left — and hitting a perfect pitch-and-run into the cup for eagle.
“Pretty sick chip,” Thomas said. “Not one I necessarily expect to get up-and-down all the time. But I have pretty good belief in my short game, and when you’re in the fairway, you have a lot more control of the ball. Just trying to visualize it and see it and hit my spot, and luckily the hole got in the way. It was nice to steal one there.”
He played alongside Scheffler and saw him endure the final two holes with the cut at stake. Thomas has been on the cut line, and he knows Sawgrass plenty well.
“If you’re on the cut line and you’re standing on 17, if you hit it in the water, you’re all but done,” Thomas said. “Then the same kind of goes for 18 on the tee shot. It’s every bit as hard as trying to win a golf tournament.”
What he saw from Scheffler was some timing issues, but nothing he found alarming.
“He’s still hitting shots that not many people on planet earth can hit in the same rounds,” Thomas said. “It’s just golf. He’s been hitting it pretty much where he wants within like a blanket size for what seems like two or three years. He’s still had a pretty damned good year.”
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