Birdied four of his last six holes for one-shot win

SAN DIEGO – The Genesis Invitational was always going to be about California Rises, the initiative to help rebuild fire-stricken Los Angeles. It’s a two-hour trek north to the tournament’s usual home, The Riviera Country Club. Farther north is Stanford, alma mater of tournament host Tiger Woods, who won 11 times in college, tied for most all-time.

And California really was rising.

Patrick Rodgers (71, T3), also a Stanford alum with 11 wins there, seized the 54-hole lead.

Maverick McNealy (yep, also 11 wins, tied with Woods and Rodgers in the Stanford record books), was the clubhouse leader at 11-under after shooting a final-round 64 at Torrey Pines.

Patrick Cantlay, who grew up in SoCal and went to UCLA, also contended (68, T5).

And then, in the middle of all this California, came Sweden. Which, once you get to know Ludvig Åberg, makes all the sense in the world.

Åberg, who loves Torrey Pines and California, but whose bid to win here three weeks ago was derailed by illness, birdied holes 13-15 and two-putted the par-5 18th hole from 74 feet to shoot a final-round 66 and edge McNealy by one.

“I feel like this is my last day on the West Coast for quite some time, so I think In-N-Out (Burger) would be appropriate,” Åberg said of his likely celebratory meal.

Spoken like a true native.

Indeed, there is something very California about the Åberg swagger and vibe. He plays fast, looks like he doesn’t have a care in the world, and at Torrey Pines was cool until the very end, rolling in a nearly 7-foot birdie putt for the winning margin on 18. He pumped his fists and hugged his caddie, Joe Skovron, and girlfriend, Olivia Peet.

Told that Woods faced almost the same putt to force an 18-hole U.S. Open playoff with Rocco Mediate in 2008 at Torrey Pines, Åberg said he was aware of that.

“I guess his was a little bit longer,” he said.

It was his second PGA TOUR win, his first coming 455 days ago at The RSM Classic in fall 2023.

“Oh, absolutely, it felt like a lifetime,” Åberg said. “It is hard winning on the PGA TOUR, they're the best players in the world. … It's very reassuring to know that I can sort of go from where I was a couple weeks ago to winning a tournament in sort of a quick turnaround.”

Åberg shot an opening-round 63 at the Farmers Insurance Open three weeks ago but came down with a mystery illness that saw him throwing up on the course. He finished T42.

“I don’t like pulling out of tournaments,” he said.

But he did pull out after the stomach bug morphed into body aches and chills at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am the following week. He shot an opening-round 77 and withdrew.

All told, he said, he lost 8 pounds.

“I went home on Friday from Pebble and then I was sort of in bed until Tuesday,” he said. “It wasn't until Wednesday that I started hitting balls. Couldn't really train in the gym properly until maybe Thursday. It took me a while, but here we are now.”

Åberg, the world No. 6, never got an official diagnosis; he began The Genesis Invitational at less than his normal playing weight. But if he got unlucky at the Farmers, falling ill, fate smiled upon him this time at Torrey Pines. He holed out from greenside bunkers in the first and second rounds and spoke afterward of a bet he has with caddie Skovron in which Åberg needs to get to seven hole-outs by the end of the RBC Heritage, April 17-20.

When he made his first PGA TOUR hole-in-one on the third hole in Round 3, he was at five.

“I like my chances,” he said afterward.

The tournament itself looked far more tenuous. McNealy birdied nine of his first 13 holes Sunday to jump out ahead, and Åberg, already behind, faced a 7-foot par putt on 12. He made it and, rising to meet the moment, went 4-under for his last six holes.

“If I hadn’t made that one,” he said of the par putt, “I don’t think I would have won today.”

Easy to forget that Åberg was finishing up college not long ago. After graduating No. 1 in PGA TOUR University in 2023, he’s now getting his second look at many TOUR courses.

He was getting his third look at Torrey Pines, where he finished T9 at the Farmers last season.

“Ever since the news broke that we were going to come back here, I was thrilled,” he said.

Åberg could easily have folded when he bogeyed the fourth and fifth holes and failed to birdie the par-5 sixth. He was even par; McNealy had played the same stretch in 5-under. But there is something imperturbable about Åberg, who can seem older than his years. Such was the case when he went 2-2-0 for Europe at the 2023 Ryder Cup, and so it was Sunday.

“He doesn’t get rattled by much,” Skovron said. “He just keeps going.”

That kind of poise is hard to explain, but at least we now know what to call it: California cool.

Back to full strength and brimming with confidence after capturing a Signature Event that featured 46 of the top 50 in the world, there’s no telling where Åberg will go next.