There are lots of things to admire about Ludvig Åberg. The 6′ 4″ Swede has taken to professional golf like the proverbial duck to water, playing in a Ryder Cup before he’d even played in a major, winning three times in his first 18 months as a pro and finishing runner-up on debut at Augusta National, but it’s perhaps the rapid pace with which he plays that’s the most pleasing aspect of Åberg’s game.
Speaking to the press ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, Åberg, who won the most recent PGA Signature Event, was asked what it was that other professionals might like to take from Åberg’s game.
“Oh, the pace of play maybe,” he said with a smile. “I would like to think that I’m quick, and I would like to think that I make my decisions pretty fast. I think that’s something that is a good thing.
“I think because growing up I didn’t really practice, I only played. I played a bunch of golf growing up. Sort of when I was introduced to practice I didn’t really necessarily enjoy it. I didn’t think it was fun to hit balls for a long time, I just wanted to go play and sort of hit shots and go play with my buddies. When I played, I didn’t want to be the guy that people were waiting for. I just don’t like playing slow, and I want the round to sort of have a nice tempo and a nice flow to it, I guess. So if it comes from that, I don’t know. But it stuck with me.
“I love twosomes when we play here on the PGA Tour, I think it’s the best thing, because it gets that flow and it gets sort of that nice tempo.”
Certain players, Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy being prime examples, have spoken about how they had to make conscious efforts to slow down when they began their professional careers as the standard pace of play on the PGA Tour in particular left them with too much time to mull over shots before hitting them.
And it’s a problem that Åberg has faced as well.
“I think so,” he responded when asked if he had the same issue that McIlroy and Johnson had. “I think because my tendency is to sort of walk fast too, so I almost have to slow myself down a little bit when I’m walking. I would like to, you know, the decisions that I make, they’re still going to be quick and they’re still going to be decisive, but when I’m walking between shots I might slow it down just a tick.”
Following his win at Torrey Pines, Åberg trails only Scottie Scheffler and McIlroy – the world numbers one and two – in the betting this week, and he feels that Bay Hill and the current setup mean that it’s a case of staying patient and taking your opportunities when they’re presented.
“Yeah, it’s hard, it’s firm, the greens are firm,” he explained. “We are expecting to get some rain today so they might soften up a little bit. But we expect firm conditions, we expect thick rough, and it’s going to be requiring a lot of patience playing this golf course.
“It’s a cool golf course because you sort of have to take a lot of shots on, you can’t really bail out. You’re going to get a lot of tee shots over water, a lot of cool second shots over water. It will be important to stay patient, but also being very aggressive to our targets.”
Åberg will get a close look at the world number one as he and Scheffler are paired together for the opening two rounds, and unsurprisingly, he’s a big fan of Scheffler’s game and thinks there are elements that he can adapt to improve his own.
“Yeah, I think there’s a lot of things that obviously Scottie’s doing really well,” he said. “The way that he controls the ball flight is one of the things that stands out to me. I like the idea that, I mean I can’t speak for him, but it seems like from watching that he’s aggressive off the tee, but fairly conservative into the greens, which allows him to get a lot of chances.
“He’s very disciplined in the way that he plays golf, which is why he’s won here twice and he’s won on really hard golf courses, won Memorial. I think that would be sort of a strategy that I would like to emulate a little bit more. Just to make sure that you give yourself plenty of chances. But you’re also being aggressive when you have the opportunity to do so.”
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