PINEHURST, N.C. — Tony Finau has had his first up-close look at Ludvig Aberg this week, grouped with him for the first two rounds of the 124th U.S. Open.
Suffice it to say he’s impressed.
Make no mistake: Finau is in contention and focused on his own game as he tries to capture his first career major championship.
But he’s had a hard time keeping his eyes off of Aberg, the 24-year-old Swede playing in his third career major championship and first U.S. Open.
Aberg is a player those in the golf know believe is headed for superstardom.
And what he’s done for the first 36 holes of this U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 is eye-opening — seizing the lead at the halfway mark at 5-under.
Aberg followed his opening-round 66 with a 1-under 69 on Friday and holds a one-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay, Thomas Detry and Matthieu Pavon (all 4-under) entering the weekend.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever played with him,’’ Finau said. “The guy is like a machine, from what I saw. I obviously am focused on what I’m doing and playing my game, but he hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. He sure makes it look pretty easy.’’
As easy as golf can be in the treacherous conditions this golf course is presenting this week.
“When they say it’s the toughest test of golf, I think that’s what you can expect,’’ Finau said. “You know it’s going to be grueling every day. It doesn’t matter what hole it is, it’s going to be tough out here. So far, I’ve been up for the challenge.’’
So, too, has Aberg, who went to Texas Tech, has been a pro for only about a year and has already played on and contributed to a European Ryder Cup victory.
He, too, finished runner-up at the Masters last April, his first career major championship.
It has, indeed, been a whirlwind year for Aberg.
“Sometimes, I have to stop for a little bit and think about how fortunate I am to be able to do this at this level,’’ he said. “To be able to play these tournaments, to be able to play with the guys that I’ve watched on TV for such a long time is definitely a pinch-me moment.’’
The result at Augusta National has done wonders for his confidence.
“Augusta proved to me that I was able to be in that position, and it was more of a justification of like, ‘Yeah, you can actually be there and contend on a Sunday,’ ’’ Aberg said. “Then obviously the golf course also played very difficult. It demanded a lot of patience and discipline just like this one does. I feel like those experiences that I had back in April, they were great. Hopefully we’ll draw some similarities between those.’’
Asked which was the most difficult course he’s played before this week, Aberg said, “It was Pinehurst because I played the U.S. Amateur here a couple years ago.’’
“I remember it was one of my first experiences coming over and playing a really hard golf course in America, and I was like, ‘Is this what golf in America is like?’ ’’ he recalled. “Luckily it’s not like this every week.’’
This U.S. Open has become a war of attrition —just as everyone predicted it would become.
On the rail here in the horse country of the sand hills is Aberg, closely trailed by DeChambeau, Cantlay, Detry and Pavon.
Rory McIlroy, who’s bidding to end his 10-year drought without a major championship, is 3-under along with Finau.
Among the top seven on the leaderboard, only McIlroy and DeChambeau have won a major championship.
So, there figures to be much more maneuvering and shifting on the volatile leaderboard as the pressure of the weekend mounts and the golf course becomes even more difficult than it’s been for the first 36 holes.
“The golf course was very difficult. It was a lot firmer than it was yesterday,’’ Cantlay, who held a share of the lead at 5-under after Thursday’s opening round, said. “I think it’s going to be a challenge the rest of the weekend. Exactly what we expected.’’
