Ludvig Aberg and caddie Joe Skovon study a putt at the 3rd today – image USGA
Rising superstar, Ludvig Aberg, is playing in just his third major championship but having finished runner-up on debut at the Masters he has already displayed a capacity to handle the biggest of stages and this weekend he might get to prove that not only can he handle them, he can conquer them.
The Swedish golfer added a second-round 69 to his opening 66 and leads by one over his joint first-round leader, Patrick Cantlay, Bryson DeChambeau and Belgium golfer, Thomas Detry, with one of the pre-tournament favourites Rory McIlroy amongst a group of three players just one shot further back and just two from the lead.
Aberg played late on day two and led both fairways and greens hit categories, a key ingredient in an event such as this and on a golf course such as Pinehurst # 2.
“Absolutely, felt like I hit it very nicely today,” said Aberg. “It was obviously very challenging, and it’s not an easy golf course to play. But I felt like we stayed very disciplined, stayed very patient, and tried to hit it to our targets all the time and see how many golf — we said beforehand see how many good shots we can hit today and see where that ends up at the end.
“I think a U.S. Open is supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to be tricky, and it’s supposed to challenge any aspect of your game. And I feel like it’s really doing that. But super fortunate with the way that things have turned out over the last couple days, and hopefully we’ll be able to keep it up.”
Several players made good moves today but perhaps none more so than Hideki Matsuyama whose best of the day round of 66 saw him jump to within three shots of the leader and very much in contention heading into the weekend.
As was the case at the completion of yesterday’s opening round, 15 players are under par and all are four shots or less from the lead but even the 36 players at 2 over or better are just seven from the lead and very much a consideration over what promises to be a demanding final 36 holes.
Min Woo Lee along with Adam Scott leads the Australians – image USGA
Two of those at 2 over are Australians Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee, Lee improving sharply with his round of 69 while Scott added a round of 72.
Scott appeared to be heading for the weekend off with an outward nine of 39 but a last-nine rally has him well enough placed heading into the weekend.
Cam Smith is another shot back at 3 over while New Zealand’s Ryan Fox was the only other Australasian to make the cut on the number at 5 over.
Jason Scrivener missed the cut by one, Jason Day by three and Cam Davis by three.
