Players Defeat 'Stings' But Upbeat Ludvig Aberg Knows Where It All Went Wrong

It was a crushing Sunday collapse for Ludvig Aberg at The Players Championship, but the Swede was upbeat afterwards and seemed to know exactly where he went wrong.

Aberg started the day three shots clear at TPC Sawgrass but his challenge fell apart on the back nine when he found the water on both the 11th and 12th costing him a bogey and double bogey.

Those two bad swings cost him the title as Cameron Young went on to pip Matt Fitzpatrick to the PGA Tour's flagship tournament, and Aberg admitted that the loss "stings a little bit" in his post-round interviews.

But the level-headed Swede was also looking at the bigger picture, and was taking the positives from playing so well for most of the week - and crucially knows why things went wrong.

"Obviously really disappointed," said Aberg. "But overall pleased with the week. Obviously today the back nine was not good, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

"It got away from me quick there. Yeah, it was just poor swings.

"I would have loved to be standing where Cameron is standing right now. But overall I still felt like I saw some nice things in my game this beak.

"I think the front nine we handled quite well. I felt like we handled it to the point where it definitely could have been few shots better here and there. It was just a disappointing back nine, and hopefully I'll do a little bit better next time."

Aberg is naturally one of the quickest players on the PGA Tour, but he admits his swing got a bit too quick on those two water balls on 11 and 12.

But knowing exactly where he made his two biggest mistakes is a decent starting point for putting things right the next time he's in that position.

"In my opinion, it was probably just a really fast swing," Aberg said of his tee shot on 12. "I got really quick on it, and all of a sudden it's a poor flaw of mine in my golf game. It kind of ties in together with all of it.

"That's my learning from those two holes. I definitely felt a little bit fast at times. I would imagine if I look at those swings on sort of 11, 12, they probably were quick swings. Takeaway got really fast and then the rest of it kind of spirals from there.

"That's something that I should have been aware of, now looking back. But yeah, that's the way it goes."

I feel like I can contend in big tournaments

Golf is not a game where even the best players in the world win too often, but even just looking through recent history the likes of Tommy Fleetwood and even Sunday's winner Young have shown how players can rebound from losing tournament leads.

And Aberg seems like the type of character who will be able to brush off such a disappointing loss and bounce back in the near future - especially given he sounds pretty confident about the state of his game.

"I think obviously the biggest thing that I take away is that I feel like I'm playing nice golf," he added. "I'm playing golf to the point where I feel like I can contend in big tournaments. Obviously a good finish last week and still a top-5 finish this week.

"Overall I feel like I'm playing good golf, which is really nice. It's nice to see on a hard golf course last week, hard golf course this week. That makes me excited.

"Obviously I would have loved a different back nine outcome today, but looking at the grand scheme of things, I'm pleased with my golf game."