Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg fired eight birdies in a crisp eight-under par 63 on Thursday to take a one-stroke lead in the US PGA Tour RBC Heritage, where world number one Scottie Scheffler was five off the pace.<\/p>\n
“Anytime you are bogey free and you make eight birdies, it’s a good day,” said Aberg, who said solid work with his irons was key to his bogey-free effort at Harbour Town Golf Links at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.<\/p>\n
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“(I) Felt like I was hitting the flights I was trying to do,” he said. “I was on the correct side of the flags, those kind of things that I really like to see. Then a few putts went in on the back nine that I didn’t really do on the front.”<\/p>\n
Three-under through the first eight holes, Aberg kickstarted a back-nine surge with a nine-foot birdie at the 10th.<\/p>\n
“It was a tricky read, kind of up and over, double breaker, and that was really nice,” said Aberg, who got up and down for par at 11 before another birdie at 12.<\/p>\n
That was followed by a 22-foot birdie putt at the par-three 14th, and back to back birdies at 16 and 17.<\/p>\n
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“It was nice to see the putt on 14 go in,” he said. “It was the longest putt I made today, I think. Obviously hit the right shot, short left, and then a good putt to end it off.”<\/p>\n
Aberg had a one-stroke lead over American Harris English and Norway’s Victor Hovland.<\/p>\n
Half a dozen players shared fourth on six-under 65, a group that included former US Open champions Matt Fitzpatrick and Gary Woodland.<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy, coming off his second straight Masters triumph on Sunday, skipped the elite signature event.<\/p>\n
World number one Scottie Scheffler, who finished runner-up to McIlroy at Augusta National after his weekend surge left him one stroke behind the Northern Ireland star, carded a three-under par 68.<\/p>\n
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Scheffler’s week started with a bogey at the par-four first, where his tee shot went out-of-bounds on the right.<\/p>\n
“It was looking like it was going to hit those trees and I guess it flew right through them and hit (a) path and went out of bounds,” said Scheffler, who admitted he didn’t even know there was an out-of-bounds lurking there.<\/p>\n
He got on track with birdies at the third, fifth and sixth and after a bogey at the seventh picked up two more strokes coming in.<\/p>\n
“I feel like I did some good stuff out there,” Scheffler said. “Conditions were tough late in the day. (I) would have liked to have had a better start, but outside of that, I felt like I executed pretty well.”<\/p>\n
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