PINEHURST, N.C. — The U.S. Open championship is being decided this weekend by a player who has never played in a U.S. Open.
Ludvig Aaberg sits atop the U.S. Open leaderboard despite this being his first U.S. Open and never having played in a major tournament until this year. And yet he’s conquered, or at least survived, a course that has troubled everyone from Scottie Scheffler to Brooks Koepka to Tiger Woods.
“The U.S. Open is supposed to be difficult. It’s supposed to be tricky and test every aspect of your game, and I feel that’s what it is,” Oberg said after his round. “But I’ve been very fortunate with how the last few days have gone and hopefully I can keep it going.”
“From what I’ve seen, he’s a machine,” Tony Finau, who played with Oberg on Thursday and Friday, said of Oberg. “He hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. He certainly makes it look easy.”
Thursday night’s leaders Patrick Cantlay and Rory McIlroy struggled but are still well placed to catch up. Mathieu Pavon kept pace with Oberg and shared the lead for much of the afternoon. Bryson DeChambeau weathered an up-and-down round at -1 to finish at -4. Thomas Detry and Finau are also in the top seven, with DeChambeau and McIlroy the only two of them to have won major championships.
A total of 14 players are within one shot of Oberg heading into the weekend, and the USGA would be happy to see that logjam continue through the weekend.
The best moment of Friday afternoon came not far from the top of the leaderboard: Francesco Molinari, who had missed the cut in eight of the past 10 majors, made a hole-in-one on the final hole of the day before falling to the next runner-up.
So far, Pinehurst hasn’t shown enough to put itself at the top of the leaderboard, but with scorching temperatures and sunny skies in the forecast, the course is… Might be — becomes more difficult to manage.
“This golf course is going to be very difficult to play this weekend, especially with the weather forecast,” Cantlay said, “so just play smart, play patiently and you’re going to make mistakes, but that’s part of playing the U.S. Open.”
At this point, it’s debatable who is better suited to handle such a disaster: a player who has been in such a situation before, or a player who doesn’t know what to fear.