After being one of the top stories after the first round of the 89th Masters, Texas Tech alum Ludvig Aberg had a rough go of it in Friday's second round. After shooting a -4, 68 to open the tournament on Thursday, he carded a +1, 73 to drop out of the top ten on the leader board at -3 overall.
It was an eventful day for Aberg. In all, he had three birdies but four bogies as he had to battle through mistakes throughout his round.
After two pars to open his round, Aberg made his first birdie of the day on hole three. That brought him to -5 overall at the time.
However, back-to-back bogies on holes six and seven were the beginning of his troubles. For a moment, though, it looked as if he might find his footing after a birdie on hole eight.
He then played par golf until hole 16 when he put another birdie on his scorecard. After that, though, his wheels would come off.
Finishing his round with bogies on both 17 and 18, he came in one over par and dropped to a tie for 12th place overall. That's ten spots lower than where he was on the leaderboard when his round began.
Leading the way at the time of this article's publishing is first-round leader Justin Rose. The veteran who always seems to perform well at Augusta National carded a 1-under 71 to sit at -8 in the clubhouse.
However, several big names are hot on his tail. Bryson DeChambeau made a hard charge on Friday with a -4 round to move to -7 overall.
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy, who needs to win a green jacket to complete the career grand slam, had a blistering round of -6, 66 to move into third place after shooting even par in round one. As for world No. 1, Scottie Scheffler, he is still on the course working on a round of -1 through seven holes to sit at -5.
As for Aberg, he still has a chance to make a charge this weekend. Saturday, which is known as "moving day" at major tournaments, is going to be critical to his hopes of climbing the leaderboard.
He must get back to driving the ball with consistency, something he did on Thursday but not on Friday. In fact, he hit only 10 of 14 fairways off the tee after finding 12 of 14 on Thursday.
Because he wasn't as solid with his long clubs, he found himself facing longer and more difficult putts in round two when he averaged 1.67 putts per hole, up from the 1.61 he averaged in the opening round. To put that in perspective, when Aberg concluded his round, the field was averaging 1.61 putts per hole, meaning that Aberg was well below average with the flat stick.
Fortunately, Aberg is in no danger of missing the cut, meaning he will get a shot to make noise on the weekend. However, because of his second-round struggles, he now has plenty of work to do to capture his first career major championship.