Åberg finished second at his first major, The Masters in April, but had a tougher experience at the PGA Championship in May when he missed the cutoff. In his third major, he looks to be back on track.
Only two bogeys on the admittedly tough Pinehurst course in North Carolina and at the same time the Swede rolled in a total of six birdies. Four under par gives Åberg absolute familiarity when more than half the starting field still hasn’t finished playing. Only Patrick Cantlay with 65 strokes, -5, is better.
On Åberg’s 14th hole (hole 5) he was extremely close to making an eagle but the putt from the foregreen slipped past. A simple so-called “tap in” for birdie.
Hit all fairways
What impresses most of all when you look at the statistics of Åberg’s laps is the number of fairways hit. Åberg hit extremely stable and straight and did not miss a single fairway on the round. At the US Open it is particularly important as the courses are always set up extra difficult, with high roughs, where you are severely penalized for missing the fairways.
Add that Åberg hit 16 out of 18 greens and you understand that the Swede has something big going on if he maintains that stability throughout the competition.