When some talk about the golf “gods” they aren’t talking about a divinity which is always fickle. Instead, sometimes the golf gods can look down upon players in a gracious fashion. With that said, some might have said the golf gods were looking down at Ludvig Aberg and smiling this weekend when Aberg was able to return to Torrey Pines and slay the proverbial dragon which evaded him during the Farmers Insurance Open just weeks prior.

As for the Genesis Invitational tournament this past weekend, Aberg was three shots behind and running out of holes when he hit three shots which all resulted in birdies and capped off a late rally with a 7-foot birdie putt on the Par 5 18th for a 6-under 66 and a one-shot win over Maverick McNealy.

Before going back to the Farmers Insurance tournament, and what transpired for Aberg, it is important to note the comeback Aberg executed on Sunday to claim his second win on the PGA Tour, outlasting McNealy as two young and upcoming players went toe-to-toe.

It was a close call for McNealy, who three months ago won for the first time on tour. He looked like a winner at Torrey Pines when he opened with eight birdies in 11 holes — not to mention a 40-foot par putt on the first hole — and stretched his lead to three.

But he had to scramble for par on the 17th after a drive that caromed off a pole and into an impossible lie in the rough, and then he failed to convert a birdie on the 18th. He still shot 64, but still on the course was the Swede regarded as one of golf’s rising stars.

While McNealy coasted to the finish, Aberg put the pedal down and completed an unbelievable round of golf Sunday in California. Throughout it all, don’t think what transpired the last time Aberg was on this course was lost on him. It was somewhere toward the end that he turned to caddie Joe Skovron and said, “This Sunday is a lot more fun than the last one we had.”

In case you forgot, it was the Farmers Insurance tournament which saw Aberg jump out to a -9 1st Round, only to watch the proverbial wheels fall off. But it wasn’t his game which let him down, but his health. Aberg was visibly ill in the early rounds of the tournament, sometimes being physically ill on the course, and eventually finished with a +3 finish which was T42. A far cry from his Round 1 63. The illness caused him to withdraw from the Pebble Beach Pro-Am the following week.

Needless to say, he was excited to return to Torrey Pines, one of his favorite courses, and to finish the way he knew he could.

“Was nice to come here starting to feel like myself again and physically getting there,” he said. “It means a lot. This is the best feeling in golf, and to be able to do what I did today is definitely going to help me going forward in the future.”

The story wasn’t all about the champion this weekend, but also McNealy. McNealy is turning into a solid player on tour, and pulled off a comeback of his on on Sunday at Torrey Pines.

“It’s more than I could have asked for at the start of the day,” said McNealy, who started five shots behind. “Ludvig played awesome. I knew with that leaderboard it was going to take some great golf to get it done.”

Aberg agreed it was a fun competition, a tremendous back-and-forth with not just Aberg and McNealy in the hunt, but also names like Scottie Scheffler and Patrick Rodgers both in the mix down the stretch.

“It was a great fight,” Aberg said. “I’m really proud of the way I finished. It was really cool.”

Aberg, who finished at 12-under 276, won $4 million for his third victory worldwide since turning pro in June 2023 as the top-ranked college player out of Texas Tech.

Scottie Scheffler was 10 shots better than the third round with a 66 and tied for third with Patrick Rodgers (71).

The next event for the PGA Tour is a trip to Mexico for the Mexico Open. You won’t see many big-name players in the field, this tournament being before the tour returns to the east coast for the Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach, FL on Feb 27 – Mar 2.

Jeff Hartman is the host of the Fairways & Dreams podcast, which the latest podcast can be heard in the player below as he talks about the latest news/topics in the game of golf.