PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Ludvig Aberg was the model of control at The Players Championship, in the lead for 36 consecutive holes and marching to what looked to be a methodical win on the TPC Sawgrass.
And then control gave way to collapse.
His 7-wood sailed into the water right of the green on the par-5 11th. His driver was pulled left into the water on the reachable par-4 12th.
Aberg stood on the 11th tee ahead by two. He walked to the 13th tee behind by three. The Swede never recovered, shot 40 on the back nine, closed with a 4-under 76 and tied for fifth.
“Obviously, today the back nine was not good,” he said. “But that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
By the time he reached the theater surrounding the island green on the 17th hole, the tournament was being decided ahead on the 18th hole when Cameron Young blistered the longest drive ever on the 18th hole at a wind-aided 375 yards, and Matt Fitzpatrick failed to save par.
By then, the disappointment had set in for Aberg.
It all turned on the 11th hole, where he was in position for an easy birdie until his 7-wood flared out to the right and the wind kept pushing it until it found the middle of the pond.
“I felt like I’ve had that sort of 7-wood right miss a few times this week, on No. 4 especially twice, and it came up on 11 as well,” Aberg said.
He salvaged a bogey after his penalty drop, and then reached for driver on the 373-yard 12th. Rory McIlroy earlier drove the green to 10 feet. Aberg was tied for the lead at 12-under par at that point after Fitzpatrick in the group ahead made a tap-in birdie on No. 12
Aberg’s swing was quick and the ball went left into the water. He had to drop short of the start of the water, 168 yards away. His third shot went over the green, and he used putter back up the slope that ran some 20 feet away. Two putts later, he had a double bogey and was reeling.
“Tried to press a little bit on 12, hitting driver, where sometimes you can play 3-wood a little short of that bunker,” Aberg said. “We had sort of a game plan as driver would be an option, and today, obviously, the wind was a little bit different from what we’ve had. And it was a good wind for it.
“It was a poor swing — a really poor swing — and it definitely stings a little bit.”
Aberg doesn’t waste time when he gets over a shot, and he had said he sometimes he gets a little too fast when the situation gets tense. It was every bit of that Sunday.
“I definitely felt a little bit fast at times. I would imagine if I look at those swings on 11, 12, they probably were quick swings,” he said. “Takeaway got really fast and then the rest of it kind of spirals from there. That’s something that I should have been aware of, now looking back.”
He didn’t have the only collapse. Aberg played in the final group with Michael Thorbjornsen, a college rival and friend and now a neighbor in the Ponte Vedra Beach area. His meltdown came early when Thorbjornsen pitched out from the thick rough left of the fourth fairway, put his wedge into the water and then three-putted from 10 feet for a quadruple-bogey 8.
Aberg managed to see the bigger picture. He tied for third at tough Bay Hill last week. He played well enough to win at Sawgrass until those two shots into the water.
“I’m playing golf to the point where I feel like I can contend in big tournaments,” Aberg said. “Obviously, a good finish last week and still a top-five finish this week. Overall, I feel like I’m playing good golf, which is really nice.”
He saw a nice celebration when he finished. It just wasn’t his.
“That’s the way it goes sometimes,” he said.
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