THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome FedExCup leader Ludvig Aberg to the interview room here at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Ludvig, you're making your fifth start this season, which includes a T-5 finish at the Sentry and a victory in your most recent start at the Genesis Invitational. Can we just get some comments on the strong start to your season.
LUDVIG ABERG: Yeah, it's been sort of a little bit of a roller coaster, I feel like. I felt like I started the year pretty well in Hawaii, and Farmers it was nice for a little bit. Then it kind of got, hit a dip, hit the wall. I had to withdraw from Pebble. But after that it's been great. I've been slowly getting back up there and playing nice golf.
It was good to have a couple weeks off. I spent some time with my coach back home in Jax and it was nice. Looking forward to a really nice stretch of cool tournaments coming up this week and next week, and hopefully we can keep playing some good golf.
THE MODERATOR: Speaking of this week, you're making your third consecutive start at this event and you have a couple of top-25 finishes. Can you just get some comments on the course and what it's like to be back.
LUDVIG ABERG: Yeah, it's hard, it's firm, the greens are firm. 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.
THE MODERATOR: With that we'll open it up to questions.
Q. We have seen some tremendous success out of the PGA TOUR U program. You were the first one to win that and we just saw Luke Clanton lock up his PGA TOUR card. I know you're probably too young to consider yourself someone like a mentor, but have any of these kids reached out to you and can you speak to the success of that program?
LUDVIG ABERG: Yeah, it's been great. Like you said, I was sort of the first guy to take advantage of it, which was awesome. It definitely propelled my career and gave me a really nice start. Brendan von Doehren has done a tremendous job with that program and getting it better, and I think it's just going to get better. You're going to get a lot of guys coming over to college, and it gives you the incentive to stay in school and try to get those points, just like Luke did with the Accelerated program.
So it's going to make college golf better. At the end of the day it's going to make the PGA TOUR better, I think.
So none of 'em has really reached out to me. I was able to play with a few guys. I mean, me and Michael are good friends, Michael Thorbjornsen, and we have conversations on a regular basis. Yeah, I'm having a hard time seeing myself as sort of the older guy, although I just feel like I just started. It's really cool to see. Obviously those guys are really good at golf, and you're just going to see more of it, I think.
Q. Growing up in Sweden what have you heard about the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Bay Hill, and were there any other American courses that you really looked at as, these are courses I really want to play one day?
LUDVIG ABERG: Bay Hill is definitely one of the most iconic ones. I remember I played, first time I played it was in 2020 and I was a part of the Palmer Cup team, the International Palmer Cup team, and it was moved during COVID. So that was a really cool week we spent here representing the international team.
Yeah, there's so many things, you can't speak enough of what Arnold Palmer and his legacy means to our game. I sort of try to do it the way that he does it, or the way he did it, which was amazing. If there's, you know, if you can slightly do it the way that he did it I think you're going to be pretty good.
Q. The time back home with your coach what did y'all work on?
LUDVIG ABERG: We did a lot of short game. Obviously we spent a lot of time over at TPC Sawgrass, which is the type of grass that we're going to get for the next two weeks. So a lot of these sort of short sided thick rough shots, get it up high and land it soft is going to be very important. A lot of short sided bunker shots is to be expected this week and next. We spent a lot of time doing that. Obviously the Bermuda, the overseeded Bermuda is always a little bit tricky, chipping from. Felt like we spent a lot of, a good amount of time doing that, which was nice knowing that this stretch coming up of next two weeks.
Q. After Rory won Pebble he talked about how when someone has success like Scottie does you can't help but look at their game and try to maybe pick one or two things that they do and try to emulate. Is there anything in Scottie's game that you've seen and you're like, Oh, I want to try to emulate that?
LUDVIG ABERG: Yeah, I think there's a lot of things that obviously Scottie's doing really well. 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.
Q. What do you think is the one thing people would want to take from your game?
LUDVIG ABERG: Oh, pace of play maybe (smiling). 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.
Q. Where did that come from, do you think?
LUDVIG ABERG: 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.
Q. How do you handle the pace? Specifically, as an example, I remember when Dustin and Rory, when they first came out, they actually had to teach themselves to slow down or they would lose their mind. Have you had to deal with that?
LUDVIG ABERG: I think so. 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.
Q. Do you like to practice now?
LUDVIG ABERG: Yes, it's growing on me (laughing). It's definitely, you know, I've understood that you have to, in order to get better you have to. But I do like to play a lot in my practice. Even when I'm home for these last two weeks, I mean I play nine holes basically every day. It keeps me fresh and it keeps me sort of making the decisions that you can necessarily simulate on the range. Obviously there's an important aspect of keeping your golf swing in check, but I feel like once you have that sort of under control, you just need to go out and play, score. Into the wind, off the left, and it's a left back pin, what kind of shot do you hit, all those things that I practice on the course.
Q. Is your practice more like play based or simulating shots and less, I'm going to hit 15 7-irons at this flag?
LUDVIG ABERG: Yeah, definitely. I like to play games on the course. I like to play sort of best ball, worse ball, sort of those things. When I'm on the range I like to do a little bit of time to work on the technical stuff, but then once you do that, then you sort of let that go and go back to seeing shots, hitting shots, and be more athletic and reacting.
Q. How do you, how are you preparing for Augusta differently this year, having played it now last year?
LUDVIG ABERG: Yeah, it's actually very similar. We're going to go on a trip after THE PLAYERS, I'm actually bringing my dad, which will be really cool, to go play Augusta. So I get to see a golf course again for the first time since last April, so we'll see if there's going to be any changes. I haven't heard anything, but you never know. Then we'll see the golf course and then come, I'll play San Antonio the week before, which will be a good tournament, and then be ready to go on Monday at Augusta.
Q. Living in Ponte Vedra now do you feel like you played TPC Sawgrass enough that you have any advantage next week?
LUDVIG ABERG: I've played it a lot. It's one of, I mean, for me, it's a top-5 golf course in the world. Tee to green I think it's amazing. It's right in front of you. You have to hit the shots, but if you don't you're going to get punished, which is the type of golf that I really like. So I can't help myself but play it a lot when I'm home.
If there's an advantage, I'm not sure. A lot of guys in the field have played it plenty of times, but it's a really cool place.
Q. You really like TPC Sawgrass, you really like Torrey Pines, have you found a course that doesn't really fit your eye yet?
LUDVIG ABERG: (Laughing). I'm not sure. I'm sure if you ask me again in a couple of years I'll probably have a couple, but at the moment I can't think of any.
Q. You're living in Ponte Vedra, but it feels like when guys climb up the world rankings there's like a magnetic pull to the Jupiter area. Do you feel like you're going to stay in the Jax area long-term?
LUDVIG ABERG: I think so. Yeah, I think so. We've been there for -- we moved in mid October, I think, so been there for a couple of months now, and I really like it. It's a cool vibe, it's a nice place. There's a lot of guys sort of my age that I play with in college and that are sort of younger Korn Ferry Tour guys or PGA TOUR guys that it almost has this feel of there's so many guys you can go play with, which I think is really important. I think that's one of the most important things when you pick a place to live is just to have people around you that you trust and that you like to hang out with. Whether that's Jupiter, if that's Jax, it doesn't matter, but for me that was Jax.
Q. As much as you have played Sawgrass now, are there any sort of secrets that you've unveiled or just how has it influenced how you might play it differently this time around at THE PLAYERS?
LUDVIG ABERG: Yeah, I think there's not a whole lot of secrets to that golf course. I think obviously it's a stadium golf course, so it's going to be really cool. I mean, the finish is a great example where you can -- not easy, but you can, if you execute the shots, you can finish 3, 2, 3. But if you don't you can pretty easy finish 6, 6, 6.
So that sort of, I guess, challenge is what I like. Yeah, I think having played it a couple times you just know the breaks a little bit more on the greens, you sort of recognize some of the pins and some of the shots that might be a little bit tricky that I didn't know last time. Yeah, I don't think necessarily it's -- it's a pretty straightforward golf course and there's not a whole lot of different ways to play it, in my opinion.
THE MODERATOR: Ludvig, appreciate the time as always. Good luck this week.
LUDVIG ABERG: Thank you.
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