The Players Championship: Ludvig Åberg maintains his lead at TPC Sawgrass entering final round
His round wasn’t anything special, but Ludvig Åberg is in full control entering the final day of The Players Championship.
Åberg fired a 1-under 71 on Moving Day at TPC Sawgrass to maintain his lead over the field at the PGA Tour’s marquee event. That, as Xander Schauffele and the rest of the field fell back, ended up giving him a three-shot lead entering the final day.
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Åberg sits at 13-under ahead of second-place Michael Thorbjornsen at 10-under.
If he can pull it off on Sunday, it’ll mark the biggest win of his career by far after years of contending repeatedly throughout the golf world. The European Ryder Cup star has two wins on Tour in his career, most recently at The Genesis Invitational last year.
“I definitely would have loved to come out of 16, 17 with at least one birdie, and then obviously the 3-putt on 18 kind of stings, annoys me a little bit,” he said. “But yeah, overall I started the day with a two-shot lead and ended with a three, so that’s a positive for sure.”
The day began a little later than scheduled as police investigated a Friday night shooting near the golf course. Players teed off as normal, but spectators were held outside the gates until 9 a.m. local time. Once they arrived, they had a good look at a familiar sight: Scottie Scheffler tearing up the golf course.
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After two days in which he struggled so badly he entered his final hole of Friday on the cut line, Scheffler spent Saturday playing a more familiar game. With five birdies, he rocketed up the leaderboard to get to 4-under. While he likely won’t win his third Players Championship, he recovered a bit of his game … or, to hear him tell it, he played exactly as he needed to.
“When I look at tournaments, I’m not thinking about winning, I’m thinking about approaching things the right way,” Scheffler said after his round. “I did my best to stay committed, and I did a good job, I think, of keeping the right attitude and keeping my head on straight in order to grind out a couple rounds that were difficult. And then I shot a nice round today … For me, that’s a good week.”
Rory McIlroy, Scheffler’s fellow two-time winner and the defending Players champion, didn’t fare as well. McIlroy struggled through an up-and-down even-par round — three birdies, three bogeys — and clearly isn’t playing with the kind of sharpness he’d expect of himself heading toward April.
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One of the best rounds of the day — a stroke better than Scheffler’s 67 — belonged to PGA Tour rookie Sudarshan Yellamaraju, making just his seventh Tour start. Yellamaraju needed three birdies in his final four holes on Friday to make the cut, then piled on another six birdies on Saturday to get to 5-under on the week.
“Making cuts is pretty important out here, because from there you just never know what you can do on the weekend,” the Canadian said after his round. “I want to contend and win, that’s the next thing, but got to start somewhere, so making cuts is a good start.”
There have been more active days at The Players, but not many better napping ones. Cameras caught one fan enjoying a prime golf nap:
The players didn’t have that luxury. On a largely favorable scoring day for the rest of the field, Åberg, Schauffele and the rest of the leaders failed to capitalize. Åberg played the front nine in even par, Schauffele at 1-over, allowing several others to sneak into the mix. Thorbjornsen, Jacob Bridgeman (7-under) and the ageless Justin Rose (6-under) all went low to put themselves in position to challenge for the win on Sunday.
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One chaser who struggled: Justin Thomas, who had ridden a pair of weekday 68s to within three shots of the lead to start the day. But a catastrophic two-hole stretch — bogey/triple bogey on 5 and 6 — sent him tumbling down the leaderboard. He’s at 8-under and tied for fourth.
But with everything going on behind him, Åberg didn’t slip. He picked up his third eagle of the week two holes after making the turn when he stuck his approach on the par 5. That pushed the lead to four at the time.
His only real slip was at the 18th, where he three-putted for a bogey. That completed his 71, and gave him the three-shot lead entering Sunday.
Thorbjornsen jumped up into contention, too. After opening the week with a 74, he backed up Friday’s 65 with a 5-under round on Saturday to get to 10-under and into solo second. If he can somehow overtake Åberg and pull off the win, it’ll be the worst start by a winner of The Players Championship in the event’s history. Cameron Young nearly played his way into the final group, though he doubled the 18th to drop to 9-under.
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But, after Åberg’s incredibly steady outing on Moving Day, it’s going to take quite a bit for Thorbjornsen or anyone else to actually pull off a comeback win.
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