Ludvig Åberg, playing in just his second Masters, was decked out in the club’s green and yellow colors on Friday afternoon, but that did not guarantee him a great round at Augusta National.
By no means did the Swedish superstar shoot himself out of contention in the second round, but he didn’t advance. Unfortunately for him, the competition did.
“You can't really force things around here,” Åberg said to the media after his round. “Sometimes par is a good score. Sometimes even on the par-5s, sometimes par is a good score.”
Analyzing his round, he seemed just a little off, as he only birdied one of the four par-5s, that coming at No. 8. The rest, he made par. When it all added up, his 1-over round of 73 dropped him from tied for second after Round 1 to tied for 12th after Round 2.
Sometimes, players make unforced errors, and that was the case with Åberg. He played the first five holes 1-under but then encountered some difficulty.
After leaving his tee shot short of the green on the treacherous par-3 sixth hole, he pulled his par putt left, ultimately making a bogey. Granted, that hole can be impossible, but the error was in leaving the first shot below the putting surface.
Then, the 25-year-old found tree trouble on the right of the seventh hole with his tee shot and had to pitch out to the fairway. Once on the green, his first putt grazed the hole but did not drop, resulting in another unfortunate bogey.
He did bounce back with a birdie at the par-5 eighth. But it was par after par after par all the way to the 16th, where his tee shot landed on the back fringe. From there, he rolled in a birdie as if he'd been doing it all day.
On the 17th, Åberg made the error players just can't make, leaving his approach shot short of the false front on the green and watching his ball roll back off the green, which is usually bogey territory. And for him, it was.
Once again, he slid a putt near the hole. It was a 23-footer, so it was not a gimme by any means, but it was frustratingly close.
At the par-4 18th hole, his drive landed behind the fairway bunkers, which are so treacherous. That was a smart play. But his second shot landed in the right greenside bunker. He came out 18 feet from the hole and ended his day with another bogey, his fourth of the round.
Simple tats show that Åberg’s play was not nearly as good on Friday as it was on Thursday. He hit only 61% of greens in regulation in Round 2 compared to Round 1, where he hit 83%. His fairways hit was similarly different, as he hit 86% on Thursday and 71% on Friday.
“Today, I felt like I hit some nice shots, but distance control was a little bit off; couldn't quite figure out the wind,” he said after his round. “So getting that a little bit sharper, getting a little bit closer to the hole would be appreciated.”
The wind picked up as the day wore on, and flags were flapping straight out by the time he finished play. Conditions were definitely not easy.
His longest drive on Thursday was 323 yards; on Friday, it was 304 yards. His putts-per-hole stat was slightly worse in Round 2(1.67) versus Round 1 (1.61).
While Åberg did not play his best on Friday, he is still 3-under par for the week and is only five shots back of leader Justin Rose.
What may have been a great learning experience for Åberg in the first two rounds was playing with Rory McIlroy, who had two doubles in the first round but still managed to finish at even par.
In Round 2, of course, the four-time major champ came back with a 6-under 66 that included an eagle on the 13th from the pine straw, reminiscent of Phil Mickelson’s famous shot from that location.
As McIlroy did Friday, Åberg will look for a bounceback of his own on Saturday.