No. 1 amateur Luke Clanton, Ludvig Åberg wow one another at The RSM Classic

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Luke Clanton, the standout from Florida State and top-ranked amateur, had plenty of people following his every shot in the cold, windy second round of The RSM Classic at Sea Island’s Plantation Course on Friday.

His parents, Rhonda and David Clanton, are here.

His best friend, Sam Kodak, is on the bag as his caddie.

His coach, Jeff Leishman, and agent, Ben Walter, are also here.

One onlooker, though, was especially hard to overlook as Clanton shot a second-round 65 on the Plantation Course to reach 9-under par, just two off the lead going into the weekend. World No. 5 and defending champion Ludvig Åberg, one of Clanton’s playing partners, was hard to miss as he shot 64 to get himself back into the tournament at 5-under.

“We were kind of fan-boying a little bit over the last couple rounds,” Clanton said with a laugh. “It's kind of surreal; I know he's a really good dude, but to kind of be playing with him and to see what he's done over the last couple years is pretty inspirational.”

One moment especially had Clanton, an FSU junior, gaping in awe: Åberg’s 7-iron second shot into the par-5 eighth hole, where the ball settled 5 feet from the pin for an eventual eagle.

“I looked at him and said, 'That was awesome, that was sick,'” said Clanton, who never got a chance to play or practice with Åberg when the latter lived in Tallahassee. (Åberg has moved to Ponte Vedra Beach.) “So those … are moments I'm going to definitely cherish.”

Did Åberg ever say the same of thing about one of Clanton’s shots?

“He actually did,” Clanton said, beaming. “On one, I hit a 9-iron maybe 5 feet off the ground. He looked at me and said, 'That was crazy.' It was kind of cool to kind of get a compliment from him, but he's just an awesome guy and an awesome player.”

Åberg, who took a few months off after undergoing left knee surgery and admitted to some rust in his 3-over 73 on Thursday, said he felt considerably sharper Friday. And he was duly impressed with Clanton, who by making the cut earned his 16th point on PGA TOUR Accelerated, the program by which high-achieving junior, sophomore or freshman can earn PGA TOUR membership and become eligible for all open, full-field TOUR events. (The threshold is 20 points by the end of their third year of NCAA eligibility.)

“Yeah, absolutely, we both spent some time in Tallahassee when I lived there, so I've seen him in the practice rounds,” Åberg said of Clanton. “Haven't really played with him before so that was the first time, but obviously he's (the world No. 1 amateur) for a reason and you can definitely see he's got a lot of shots in the bag, a lot of different flights and different things in his toolbox that he can pull out when he wants to, and I think that's very impressive.”