ORLANDO — Ludvig Åberg did not win Arnie’s event, but he had his best start of the year, finishing third and closing with a 67 that left him tanned, not rested but very much ready for a home game: the 26-year-old Swedish golfer with his picture-perfect swing-from-Byron move lives right down the road from the Stadium Course, home of this week’s Players Championship. He sees Vijay Singh (now and again) on the range there, and Jay Monahan in the clubhouse. He knows every last hook bounce on the course that will finish with a splash.
Yes, what’s true for us is true for them: Keeping your golf ball dry is the highest priority at the course once known as TPC Sawgrass. In the unlikely event that Åberg should forget that credo for even one asleep-at-the-wheel moment, his caddie will surely remind him. Åberg’s caddie, as of this year, is Joe Skovron. Yes, the same cool-and-collected Joe Skovron who packed for Rickie Fowler when Fowler won the 2015 Players. This will be Åberg’s third Players. In 2024, as a rookie, he had a T8 finish. Last year, he missed this cut.
All manner of position players have won in Ponte Vedra Beach, including Calvin Peete, Lee Janzen, Fred Funk, Tim Clark, Matt Kuchar and Webb Simpson. But let’s not forget the golfers loaded with horsepower who have won there: Greg Norman, Fred Couples, Davis Love, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler. Enter Ludvig — all six-foot-three-inches and 190 pounds of him, in form and at home.
“It’s a course where it’s obvious what you have to do but you still have to pull it off,” he said Sunday night at Bay Hill. “You have to hit the right shots at the right time. I love the finish: 16, 17, 18. You have to step up and hit golf shots all the way in.”
Minutes earlier, he had been having a good time, talking to Swedish TV reporters in Swedish. Every once in a while, you’d hear some English: Bay Hill, the Players, a birdie here, a birdie there. Åberg shot 12 under at Bay Hill, three shots out of the Daniel Berger-Akshay Bhatia playoff, won by Bhatia.
He’s not the first Swedish golfer to come to America loaded with promise and talent. Jesper Parnevik, son of a Swedish comedian, had almost too much personality to be a consistent contender on the PGA Tour, but it was delightful to watch him play his twitchy golf. Annika Sorenstam didn’t need great artistry to become one of the best female golfers of all-time — she was relentlessly precise. Åberg might split the difference between them. He’s hugely powerful, like Henrik Stenson, but has more greenside finesse. Each of these four golfers speaks incredibly precise English, as so many European golfers do. Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm express themselves artfully, in good times and in bad. Seve Ballesteros, in his own way, did, too.
“Sometimes I can’t find a word in English and sometimes I can’t find a word in Swedish,” Åberg said. “It’s a little bit tricky.” It must be in his head. We can’t see it.
Of course, part of the beauty of golf is that it’s an outstanding activity for nonverbal expression. At the 2024 Masters, Åberg won over the galleries not with witty repartee with his playing partners or under the tree. He did it with his superb swing, his pace of play, his easy smile in good times and his no-fuss response to unforced errors. Also, he was the new guy. He finished 2nd in ’24 and 7th last year.
Speaking of nonverbal communication, Woods paid Åberg the ultimate compliment at a TGL event last year. Åberg was warming up. Woods was making a cross-court walk. He stopped, folded his arms across his chest — and watched in silence. It’s not something he does often. When Åberg won the Genesis Invitational last year, it was Woods who presented him with the trophy.
Åberg was asked if he could feel Woods’s eyes on him, at the TGL event at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
“I remember that,” he said. “It was a nervous, stressful moment.”
In professional golf, if you’re feeling nervous and stressed, something must be going right. It means you’re alive, you’re playing for keeps, you’re aware that there are a million eyeballs. If two of them belong to Tiger Woods, well — there’s a gaze that speaks volumes.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Mi***************@**lf.com.
