U.S. Open: Ludvig Aberg seizes lead; Patrick Cantlay, 2 others are 1 stroke behind

The Swedish star methodically works his way to a 1-under 69 and is at 5-under overall, avoiding big blunders and big numbers on a day of oppressive heat in the North Carolina sand hills that derailed many others. Tiger Woods misses the cut and Scottie Scheffler nearly does.

By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer

PINEHURST, N.C. — The U.S. Open is a new experience for Ludvig Aberg, not that anyone would notice the way his machine-like game gave him the 36-hole lead Friday.

Pinehurst No. 2 is not.

Aberg was a 19-year-old from Sweden about to start his college career at Texas Tech when he came to this Donald Ross gem for the 2019 U.S. Amateur, losing in the second round.

“I remember it was one of my first experiences coming over and playing a really hard golf course in America,” Aberg said. “And I was like, ‘Is this what golf in America is like?’ Luckily it’s not like this every week. But I just remember it being very hard.”

It remains every bit of that, and Aberg showed again that he very much up to the task. He didn’t miss a fairway until the eighth hole of the second round. The sensational Swede is not immune to mistakes, but he has avoided big blunders and big numbers.

He methodically worked his way to a 1-under-par 69 in extreme heat. He took a one-shot lead into a weekend that features Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay and Rory McIlroy in the mix, and Scottie Scheffler thankful just to make the cut and get another crack at Pinehurst.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever played with him. The guy is like a machine from what I saw,” Tony Finau said after a 69 left him only two shots behind. “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.”

Aberg wasn’t flawless. He did miss two fairways and he had two bogeys, one from the sandy landscape left of the eighth fairway, another when his approach on the 16th rolled through the green and into a back bunker.

He was at 5-under 135 and led by one shot over DeChambeau (69), Cantlay (71) and Thomas Detry of Belgium (67).

Pinehurst No. 2 is tough enough without a heat index that pushed toward 100 degrees at the peak of the afternoon, and with just enough wind to cause doubt.

That’s just how the 24-year-old Swede likes it.

“It’s not an easy golf course to play,” Aberg said. “But I felt like we stayed very disciplined, stayed very patient and tried to hit it to our targets all the time. We said beforehand, ‘See how many good shots we can hit today and see where that ends up.’”

He wound up with another chance on a big stage. Just over a year after he graduated from Texas Tech, Aberg already is No. 6 in the world, has won on both sides of the Atlantic, played in a Ryder Cup and was runner-up in the Masters.

Scheffler, coming off his fifth victory of the year last week at the Memorial. He went birdie-free for the first time in nearly two years, made a mess of the easiest par-5 on the course for a double bogey and figured he was headed home after a 74.

Instead, his 5-over 145 made the cut on the number.

Tiger Woods held on the best he could until missing a 12-foot par putt on the 16th hole that left him too much ground to make up. He shot 73 and missed the cut by two.

DeChambeau relied more on his putter than his power and will be in the final group with Aberg. It was the ninth time in the last 10 rounds in the majors that DeChambeau has been among the top 10 on the leaderboard.

DeChambeau was all over the place – three times following a a birdie with a bogey, saving plenty of pars with putts in the 5-foot range and finishing on a high note with a wedge into tap-in range for birdie on the 18th.

“All in all, was very happy with how I stayed patient, gave myself good opportunities when they mattered, and I made a lot of clutch putts coming in,” he said.

Cantlay and Matthieu Pavon tried to keep pace with Aberg. Cantlay, a former UCLA and Servite High standout, was flawless through seven holes until he went over the back of rock-hard eighth green, went back over the other wide, took two shots to reach the green and had to make a 12-footer for double bogey.

He dropped back again with tee shots into the scruffy dunes with native grasses, leading to bogey on the 16th and keeping him from a birdie chance on the closing hole.

“I think this golf course is going to play very challenging over the weekend, especially with the forecast that we have. It’s inevitable there’s going to be some mistakes made, but that’s just part of playing a U.S. Open,” Cantlay said.

“The line is very fine around here,” he said. “Just a yard one way or the other can be a dramatic difference.”

No line got as much attention as the cut line – and not just whether it would spare Scheffler.

Former British Open champion Francesco Molinari was at 7 over when he came to the par-3 ninth for his final hole. He hit 7-iron just over the bunker and it rolled into the cup for an ace, allowing him to make the cut.

The PGA Tour only keeps records going back to 2003 and could not find anyone who ended his round with a hole-in-one to make the cut on the number.

“That’s golf in a nut shell,” Molinari said.

The temperature is expected to get even hotter, the course even tougher. In the previous three U.S. Opens at Pinehurst No. 2, a total of four players finished under par. There were 15 players under par going into the weekend.

That included Rory McIlroy, who chipped in for par on the 17th hole and got away with a balky putter for a round of 72 that left him two shots out of the lead. Former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama had the best score of the second round at 66 and was three behind.

PGA champion Xander Schauffele started with two straight bogeys, had a double bogey and still managed a 69 to get within four shots.

All of them are chasing Aberg. No one has won the U.S. Open in his first try since 20-year-old Francis Ouimet in 1913 at The Country Club. Aberg is hardly a newcomer to this kind of stage.

SCHEFFLER AVOIDS EARLY EXIT

Scheffler chose iron off the tee for position on Friday and sent it well right of the fairway toward trouble, whether that was a bunker or the dusty dunes or the native plants dotting the landscape.

“What are you DOING?” he said to himself as he watched the ball sail offline.

Not playing great golf would have been one answer if he wanted one.

Pinehurst No. 2 has been getting the best of the top-ranked player in the world. Scheffler had his first birdie-free round in just over two years, a 4-over-par 74 that left him doubtful he would be back for the weekend.

He barely made it, his 5-over 145 making the cut on the number and leaving him 10 shots behind Ludvig Aberg of Sweden.

“Today I just couldn’t get the putts to fall,” Scheffler said. “This golf course can be unpredictable at times, and maybe it got the better of me the last couple days. I’ll sit down and think about where we’re going and figure it out.”

So much more was expected of Scheffler for so many reasons. He was coming off his fifth victory of the year at the Memorial, another tough test, making him the first player since Tom Watson in 1980 to win five times on the PGA Tour before the U.S. Open.

He had only finished out of the top 10 once this year, and that was a tie for 17th at The American Express in La Quinta.

Most of the damage came on one hole, the par-5 fifth, among the easiest at Pinehurst No. 2. Scheffler was in the fairway and some 10 yards away from having a decent look at eagle. Instead, his ball tumbled off the crowned green to the left into a sandy patch with wiregrass bushes, facing a shot up a steep hill to a short pin.

He would have preferred a low runner, except he felt a bush was in his path, so he tried to bump it into the hill. It came up woefully short and rolled back into the sandy area. Then, he blasted it up and over the green. He hit is weakest chip of the day – maybe the year – to 15 feet. And then he missed the putt and ended up with a double bogey.

“Probably on any other golf course, if I hit those two shots – driver, 3-wood – into a green on a par-5, I probably have a pretty good look at birdie,” Scheffler said. “I’m not going to be walking off with a seven. Just unfortunate place for me to put myself.”

It wasn’t just that hole. Scheffler didn’t convert reasonable birdies on three holes early, and he had a tee shot come back off the green on the par-3 15th. He chipped up just beyond 15 feet and thought his par putt was good all the way until it grazed the edge.

Scheffler flipped his putter in the air in disbelief – a common scene in this aggravating game, except he didn’t even attempt to catch it, letting it fall to the turf.

Three holes later, his driver sailed right on the 18th as he was making the turn, and Scheffler smashed the tee in the ground in disgust as it sailed into the unknown. Those kind of shots are easily found. It’s just that players have no idea what kind of break they’re going to get – clean lie, soft lie, between wiregrass bushes or right behind them. It gets old.

“This golf course is fun to play. It’s exciting,” Scheffler said. “The only aspect of it I don’t really love is the unpredictability of the native areas. I would have preferred for it to be Bermuda rough, but I’m not a course designer.

“My job is to not hit it in there as often as I did this week.”

It also left him wondering about his preparation. Winning can be draining, and Scheffler said he was feeling it after a tough win at Muirfield Village. He prefers not to play the week before a major, but the Memorial is a tough one to miss, not only as a $20 million signature event, but due to Jack Nicklaus creating and hosting the tournament.

“It definitely was a little bit of fatigue,” he said.

Give him a mulligan, and Scheffler said he might have come to Pinehurst No. 2 before he headed to Ohio for the Memorial. He says he might not have been as prepared as he prefers when he stepped onto the first tee Thursday afternoon.

But was it fun?

“Not really,” Scheffler said. “Playing poor golf is not fun. But I like the challenging aspect of it.”

And now he gets two more days of it.

MORE MISERY FOR TIGER

Woods was unable to find the right mix of quality shots and timely breaks to extend his first U.S. Open appearance in four years into the weekend.

He’s heading home. And he’s uncertain if he’ll be back.

The three-time U.S. Open champion missed the cut at 7-over, struggling to deal with tricky domed greens and sandy native areas featuring plants instead of traditional rough. Woods shot a 3-over 73 on Friday after opening with a 74, marking his 13th consecutive round without breaking par in a major.

“It’s one of those things where in order to win a golf tournament, you have to make the cut,” Woods said. “I can’t win the tournament from where I’m at, so it certainly is frustrating.

“I thought I played well enough to be up there in contention. It just didn’t work out.”

The 48-year-old Woods hadn’t played a U.S. Open round since Winged Foot in 2020 because of injuries. He has had multiple back and knee surgeries, as well as the procedure to repair serious injuries to his right leg and ankle from a 2021 car crash.

He began his U.S. Open return Thursday with a promising birdie, only to see things come apart with a mid-round stretch of five bogeys in seven holes on the way to the 74 with an early tee time. But with almost 24 hours to recover for his afternoon tee time Friday, he got off to a solid start with two par saves and a birdie at the fourth.

Yet that was as good as the scorecard would look on a hot day at Pinehurst. Woods posted for bogeys while suffering through multiple close calls on birdie putts that could’ve helped him gain some traction.

“It was probably the highest score I could have possibly shot today,” Woods said. “I hit a lot of good shots that just didn’t quite go my way. Or I hit good putts, and then I put myself in a couple bad spots with some bad lag putts.”

None stung worse than at the 15th hole, when Woods was 6 over and fighting to get inside the cut line.

He put his tee shot on the right edge of the green to set up a 15-foot putt for birdie, then tapped the ball for what looked like a perfect roll to the hole. Woods started to step confidently with his left foot, expecting the ball to drop, only to watch it catch the right edge of the cup, ride the lip about a quarter of the way around to the backside and then trickle away.

Woods froze, then leaned forward with his hands on his knees before finishing the tap-in for par.

“Yeah, 15 hurt,” he said. “If I make that putt, it flips the momentum, and I’m looking pretty good on the last three holes.”

It was one of multiple missed chances on a day that began with him getting up-and-down to save par on the first two holes. He followed with his first highlight on the fourth, rolling in a 20-foot downhill putt for birdie – a moment he marked with a subtle pump of his right fist and a big smile.

Yet the course never got easier amid 90-degree temps, and Woods couldn’t sustain that momentum to make even a modest climb.

He gave a shot right back on the fifth, starting with an errant tee shot that had him muttering to himself and watching in disappointment as the ball sailed left into the native area and straight into a clumpy plant. It ended with Woods rolling an 8-foot par putt a few inches left of the cup before taking a tap-in for bogey.

He ran into more trouble on the ninth, where his tee shot bounced on the left side of the green, then ran all the way across to roll off the back right side before stopping near a section of metal stairs for the stands. Worse, his attempt to chip onto the green ended up catching the front edge and begin rolling backward, leaving Woods only to watch with his hands on his hips before it came to rest a few feet in front of him.

He salvaged a bogey on that one, at least, thanks to a chip that set up a 5-foot finishing putt.

Woods won the U.S. Open in 2000, 2002 and 2008 on the way to becoming a 15-time major champion. He accepted a special exemption to play this week at Pinehurst No. 2, where he finished third in the U.S. Open in 1999 and second in 2005 but didn’t compete in the 2014 edition due to one of his back surgeries.

Asked whether this could be his last U.S. Open, Woods was noncommittal.

“As far as my last … U.S. Open championship, I don’t know what that is,” he said. “It may or may not be.”

DETRY EXTENDS MAJOR HOT STREAK

Detry seemed more surprised than anyone to find his name near the top of the leaderboard.

No reason for him to be that way.

After missing the cut in three of his first six major championships, and playing those six a combined 34 over par, the 31-year-old from Belgium appears to have figured out golf on its biggest stage.

He followed an opening round 69 with a 3-under 67 on Friday and finished in a three-way tie for second place, one stroke off the lead. That also gave him nine consecutive rounds at par or better in major championships.

“If you would have told me on Wednesday I would have been 5 under in my round today, I wouldn’t have believed it,” said Detry, who tied for 13th in the British Open last July and tied for fourth at the PGA Championship just last month.

“I just played target golf. I was very committed to my targets,” Detry said. “I was hitting a lot of full shots out there. I was trying to get as much elevation as possible. Instead of knocking down 7- or 8-irons, I was trying to hit like, full 9-irons and full wedges to try to get as much spin and as much height as possible. I think I did a pretty good job of it.”

Detry started on the 10th on Friday, where he made a nice par save, and then rattled off three consecutive birdies. He had three more birdies over a five-hole stretch after making the turn, before two late bogeys left him 4 under for the championship.

“I feel like this week, you make a par, you gain on the field, keep moving on. I always seem to do better that way,” said Detry, who has come close on several occasions but has yet to win on the PGA Tour or DP World Tour.

“Yeah,” he said, “the top-four in the PGA was great. It was nice to see that with some of the good golf I was able to compete against the best. I feel like I’m utilizing that confidence quite nicely this week. Hopefully I can keep it going for the weekend.”

THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN

Pavon had been in a slump coming to Pinehurst after missing the cut at the Memorial and the PGA Championship and finishing no better than tied for 49th in his two previous PGA Tour events before that.

But Pavon will enter the weekend tied for fifth place at 3-under 137 after a 70 on Friday.

“The most dangerous guy is the one that learns from mistakes, that’s my opinion,” Pavon said. “I failed a lot. Helped me to understand a couple things in my game, in my swing. I finally got my first win in Europe.”

KUCHAR MAKES CUT; MICKELSON DOES NOT

Matt Kuchar and Phil Mickelson are the only two players to play in all four U.S. Opens at Pinehurst dating to 1999. Only one will be playing on the weekend.

The 45-year-old Kuchar followed his first-round 72 with a 71 on Friday and made the cut at 3-over 143. Things didn’t go quite as well for the 53-year-old Mickelson, who shot 79-76 and finished 15 over.

WATCH OUT

Schauffele has been playing so well this year that the world’s second-ranked player hasn’t had to worry about his ball-striking.

But Schauffele hasn’t felt comfortable with the driver in his hands at Pinehurst.

On Friday, following a 40-minute wait on the No. 6 tee, he made an uncharacteristic mistake, hitting a tree about 100 yards down the fairway. The ball dropped straight down into the pine straw, leading to a double bogey on the par-5.

“It’s been a bit humbling on that front,” said Schauffele, who still managed to shoot 69 and is 1 under for the tournament. “In the last month, I was hitting my driver really nice. Just trying to get back into good form.”

‘ROCK CHALK’

Gunnar Broin survived two rounds of qualifying to make the U.S. Open. Now, he has survived to play the weekend.

Broin, who plays collegiately for Kansas, birdied three of his final five holes for a second-round 68, leaving him 3 over for the tournament and well under the cut line. The last bridie came at the par-4 eighth, his penultimate hole, when Broin drove into the native area, hit his approach over the green and then holed out from about 35 yards.

The 22-year-old from Shorewood, Minnesota, spent time last weekend working with Jayhawk alum Gary Woodland, the 2019 U.S. Open champion. He reached Pinehurst by surviving a four-for-three playoff in the final round of qualifying.

MISSED IT BY THIS MUCH

Taylor Pendrith learned how treacherous the greens can be at Pinehurst on Friday. He was 2 under for the tournament before a triple bogey at his final hole, where he twice missed his target by a fraction and watched his ball roll off and down a hill.

“You just have to be super precise with everything,” he said. “The last hole we were trying to land it two yards over the bunker. I missed my spot by two yards. Then my third shot, trying to land it two yards on the green, missed it by two yards.”

Pendrith, who started on the back nine, would have shot 67 with a par on the ninth, but instead had to settle for a 70. He was still 1 over for the championship and easily under the cut line.

“It’s a great golf course. It’s a great test. I think it’s set up pretty fairly,” he said. “If you hit good shots, you’ll be rewarded.”

AP sports writers Aaron Beard, Dave Skretta and Steve Reed contributed to this story.