PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Ludvig Aberg arrived at the 18th hole in the Players Championship so quickly that he beat the crowd.
As he dived to set his ball on the tee, putting into motion the warp-speed warm-up routine that prevents every one of his golf shots, passers-by chattered as they got into position. It wasn’t their fault, really – they had witnessed a slow, slow onslaught of golfers through the 18th, none of whom had the same urgency as the golfer leading the tournament by four shots as he stepped out to address.
Aberg stood over the ball as the first of the crowd began to calm down. And then, just when it looked like he was going to falter, he stopped. He pulled away, held for a second, and engaged again.
“Yeah, there are some balls where, depending on where the wind is blowing, you really have to get your lines right,” Aberg said later. “This may take a few extra seconds.”
A couple of extra seconds. That’s how much you can convince Ludvig Aberg to slow down if you are really trying – and 18 at TPC Sawgrass is always trying. In this case, he hoped to overturn a great round of golf and reorient a leaderboard Aberg had spent 53 holes in the Players Championship climbing.
Pace of play is perhaps the biggest difference to Aberg’s golf game. More than his prolific talent or his unacceptable demeanor, his sense of urgency is the component of his game that endears him to golf fans. Aberg doesn’t waste his time on the course playing the time-consuming mind games that fill so many PGA Tour broadcasts; he just arrives, engages and swings.
It’s a beautiful sight, indeed – the kind many in the golf world thought we’d spend all of last year seeing at the final couple of golf’s biggest events as Aberg announced himself as golf’s next big star. That didn’t go according to plan, but now, three days into this Players, it looks like the predictions may have been early and not wrong.
Aberg has looked the best player in the field of loaded players by a wide margin. If he plays to a three-shot lead on Sunday like he has leading Friday and Saturday, he could cruise straight to a career-changing victory without getting tired.
But this is where Aberg’s story gets tricky, because it’s speed that can hold him back.
“Yeah, whenever I’m in a stressful situation, I have to slow myself down because I’m too fast,” he said Saturday. “I start talking fast, I start breathing fast and I kind of work a little bit like that. So I have to really calm down, try to walk slowly, talk slowly, do everything a little bit slower, which is a challenge.”
Aberg’s tendency to rush can be a dangerous trait for a golfer with a need for speed, especially at TPC Sawgrass, where mistakes happen quickly and multiply.
Aberg said he has created a system with caddy Joe Skovron to help him navigate stressful moments when his efficiency goes into overdrive. Skovron is instructed to walk behind Aberg – physically forcing him to slow down – but also to drop Aberg if he feels the decision has happened too quickly.
“I feel like I’ve had enough experiences where I’ve seen it work,” Aberg said. “I’ve seen big events where it’s happened and I calm myself down a bit. But yeah, for me it’s just the pace of everything growing.”
The system works best when Skovron doesn’t have to say anything. This means Aberg has it under control and the caddy and player can focus on the main thing. But Sunday at the Players is a unique beast, even for a player with a lot of tournament experience.
“I definitely catch myself (when I’m rushing),” Aberg said. “When I feel like I’m in a good frame of mind, I definitely pick myself up. Sometimes that’s hard to do.”
It will be hard to catch himself in what could be a crowning achievement on Sunday, and harder to keep a leaderboard full of golfers at bay while he does it. However, after hitting the middle of the fairway on 18 and ending the day with a three-stroke lead, Aberg was in no hurry to forget the weight of that challenge.
“I’m definitely going to be nervous,” he said. “I’ve been nervous the last three days. I’ve been nervous every time I step on the 17 tee, too. So I think that’s part of it. I think anybody who says they don’t get nervous isn’t really being true to themselves.”
And how could it not be? A triumphant end is in sight for golf’s fastest player. He just can’t be in a hurry to get there.
