As Sunday’s final round of the Masters proved, anything can happen at the second nine of Augusta National.
Eventual champion Rory McIlroy was pushed to the brink and back again before finally prevailing in a playoff over Justin Rose. But for players just a little bit further down the leaderboard, the final holes of the iconic course are just as treacherous.
25-year-old Swede Ludvig Aberg learned the hard way just how quickly your luck can turn at Augusta National during the final round of his second trip to the Masters.
For a moment on Sunday, it looked as though McIlroy’s free fall could suddenly play Aberg back into contention to win. But just as quickly as the thought came, it evaporated, with McIlroy refinding his form and Aberg coming into some trouble of his own.
After 70 holes of golf, Aberg sat at 10-under for the tournament, well within striking distance. But after a bogey on No. 17 and closing with a triple-bogey on No. 18, Aberg ended his weekend in seventh place at six-under.
While the solo seventh-place finish comes with a tidy paycheck of $703,500 for Aberg, playing his last two rounds at even par would have doubled his earnings. Had Aberg been able to par his way home, he would have finished the tournament alone in third place, just one stroke out of the playoff, and taken home a prize of $1,428,000.
That said, credit to Aberg for going for it. On that last stretch, he was playing for a shot at the playoff, not a paycheck, and some riskier decisions he made did not work out in his favor. Playing out of the bunker after his drive on 18, Aberg slammed right into the wall of the hazard, forcing him to essentially take the same shot again.
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While his final run of holes was costly from a monetary perspective, Aberg still had one heck of a weekend at Augusta National. He has now finished in the top 10 in both of his Masters appearances, and seems poised to put on a green jacket at some point in the near future.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ludvig Aberg’s Last Two Holes at the Masters Cost Him $700,000.
