Ludvig Aberg drained a birdie putt on the final hole to win the Genesis Invitational in fine style on Sunday.
The Swede was three shots behind and running out of holes when he hit three shots to near perfection for birdies and capped off 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 in The Genesis Invitational.
The tournament had to relocate to Torrey from Riviera because of the wildfires in Los Angeles, and Aberg made good on another chance at one of his favourite courses. It was somewhere toward the end that he turned to caddie Joe Skovron and said, “This Sunday is a lot more fun than the last one we had.”
“Was nice to come here, starting to feel like myself again and physically getting there,” he said. “It means a lot. This is the best feeling in golf, and to be able to do what I did today is definitely going to help me going forward in the future.
He met Tiger Woods, the tournament host, for the first time a few weeks ago at the indoor TGL in Florida. This was better – 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 in the world.
“It’s very reassuring to know that I can go from where I was a couple weeks ago to winning a tournament in sort of a quick turnaround,” he said.
It was a close call for McNealy, who three months ago won for the first time on Tour. He looked like a winner at Torrey Pines when he opened with eight birdies in 11 holes — not to mention a 40-foot par putt on the first hole- and stretched his lead to three.
But he had to scramble for par on the 17th after a drive that caromed off a pole and into an impossible lie in the rough, and then he failed to convert a birdie on the 18th. He still shot 64, but still, on the course, was the Swede regarded as one of golf’s rising stars.
“It’s more than I could have asked for at the start of the day,” said McNealy, who started five shots behind. “Ludvig played awesome. I knew with that leaderboard it was going to take some great golf to get it done.”
Via AP
