One of our bald eagles was flying over TPC Sawgrass Friday afternoon. It was a sign of low scores to come. Not long after, Ponte Vedra resident Ludvig Aberg made two eagles on the front nine at THE PLAYERS.
He started the day at 3-under par and then went on a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie run to begin his round. To borrow a phrase from NBC’s Gary Koch, that’s better than most. Ridiculously better than most. But it wasn’t enough. He padded his scoring with a second eagle on the 9th to finish the front side in 29.
Aberg seemed bullet-proof but finally made an error at the 15th when he muffed a chip from long grass around the green. A second chip landed 37 feet from the hole (according to Shotlink), and pretty soon, it was a bogey, his first. However, he would go on to birdie the 16th and 18th to finish two shots clear of the field.
But Aberg wasn’t the only one who scored well or who made errors.
In the morning groups, Xander Schauffele looked like he couldn’t be caught when he posted a 7-under par score tor 10-under par for two days.
“Definitely, for the most part, I felt like I was in control and felt like I was attacking the golf course versus playing defensive,” Schauffele said.
When asked about his aggressive play, he replied, “It’s always easy to be aggressive from the fairway here.”
That was the key because he hit every fairway, which he said accounted for his score.
Defending champ Rory McIlroy, who had back problems last week, made the cut at 1-over par. His plan was to rest for the afternoon.
“I’m happy to be here for the weekend. I’m happy to get two more runs at it,” he said, after finishing in a tie for 54th place.
Scottie Scheffler, meanwhile, has been fighting driver issues. Last year, he had a driver that went left. This year, he has one that is going right. Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley on “Live From The Players” last night had comments on that.
Chamblee said he thought Scheffler’s swing had shortened up as much as a foot and a half. He also said the club face was wide open.
Paul McGinley agreed that Scheffler’s swing was shorter. He suggested that when the swing shortens up, it’s a symptom of anxiety.
However, according to Scheffler yesterday, after giving the Qi4D driver a test, he took it out the bag and returned to the Qi10.
