SAN DIEGO — Ludvig Åberg by no means felt worse leaving a golf course than three weeks in the past at Torrey Pines when he shared the 36-hole lead solely to get ailing from a abdomen ailment and stagger to the end with a 79.
That is what made Sunday — identical course, totally different match — really feel so candy.
Åberg was three pictures behind and working out of holes when he hit three pictures to close perfection for birdies and capped his late rally with a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th for a 6-under 66 and a one-shot victory over Maverick McNealy on the Genesis Invitational.
The match needed to relocate to Torrey from Riviera due to the wildfires in Los Angeles, and Åberg made good on one other likelihood at one in all his favourite programs. It was someplace towards the top that he turned to caddie Joe Skovron and stated, “This Sunday is much more enjoyable than the final one we had.”
“Was good to come back right here, beginning to really feel like myself once more and bodily getting there,” Åberg stated. “It means lots. That is the perfect feeling in golf, and to have the ability to do what I did as we speak is certainly going to assist me going ahead sooner or later.”
He met Tiger Woods, the match host, for the primary time a number of weeks in the past on the indoor TGL in Florida. This was higher — Woods presenting him the trophy, the second PGA Tour title for the 25-year-old Swede and his third worldwide that takes him to No. 4 on the planet.
“It’s extremely reassuring to know that I can go from the place I used to be a pair weeks in the past to profitable a match in form of a fast turnaround,” he stated.
It was a detailed name for McNealy, who received for the primary time on tour three months in the past. He seemed like a winner at Torrey Pines when he opened with eight birdies in 11 holes — together with a 40-foot par putt on the primary gap — and stretched his result in three.
However he needed to scramble for par on the seventeenth after a drive that caromed off a pole and into an not possible lie within the tough, after which he didn’t convert a birdie on the 18th.
“It is greater than I might have requested for in the beginning of the day,” stated McNealy, who began 5 pictures behind and completed Sunday with a 64. “Ludvig performed superior. I knew with that leaderboard it was going to take some nice golf to get it finished.”
Woods watched loads of it unfold from the published sales space. Woods withdrew from the match Monday as he coped with the loss of life of his mom, Kultida, final week. Gamers wore a pink button that had the Thai image of affection to honor her.
Åberg’s sturdy rally began with a 6-foot sliding par putt on the twelfth. He two-putted from 50 toes for birdie on the thirteenth, attacked a frightening again pin on the 14th to five toes for birdie and rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the fifteenth to tie for the lead.
From the center of the golf green on the par-5 18th, he hit 7-wood lengthy, some 70 toes away, then rolled that to only below 7 toes earlier than calmly holing the putt.
“It was an ideal combat,” Åberg stated. “I am actually happy with the way in which I completed. It was actually cool.”
Åberg, who completed at 12-under 276, received $4 million for his third victory worldwide since turning professional in June 2023 because the top-ranked faculty participant out of Texas Tech.
Scottie Scheffler shot a 66 and tied for third with Patrick Rodgers (71).
Scheffler fell 5 pictures behind with a 76 on Saturday, his highest rating in practically three years. That did not cease him from making a short run. He went out with a 31, which included 5 birdies, and obtained to inside one shot.
However he could not afford many errors, and he made two of them. He left a fragile, downhill chip within the tough on the par-3 eleventh and made bogey, and after holing a bunker shot for birdie on the fifteenth to remain within the sport, he failed to save lots of par from a bunker on the sixteenth.
He closed with a 66 and completed alone in third.
Scheffler performed with Rory McIlroy and led him by 5 on the entrance 9. McIlroy could not purchase a putt and will solely giggle at one level through the spherical. He completed with a bogey from the water on the 18th for a 72.
Rodgers and Denny McCarthy, enjoying within the last group, additionally took their turns within the lead through the last spherical till the robust again 9 on the South course caught up with them.
Rodgers fell again due to bogeys on the eleventh and twelfth holes and by no means caught up. McCarthy had the lead when he made eagle on the par-5 sixth and did not make one other birdie till the ultimate gap for a 71 to tie for fifth.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
