Ludvig Aberg aces Sawgrass with 63 to take 2-shot lead at Players as Scheffler narrowly makes cut

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Ludvig Aberg had a dream start that carried him to a 9-under 63 and a two-shot lead Friday in The Players Championship. Scottie Scheffler had a clutch finish, but only to avoid missing the cut.

Aberg was 5 under through his opening four holes and motored his way around the TPC Sawgrass with one amazing shot after another. He chipped in twice, for birdie on No. 4 and for eagle on the par-5 ninth for a 29 to tie the front-nine record on the Stadium Course.

Even on the one chip he muffed, he limited the damage by holing an 8-foot putt for bogey.

A final birdie — the Swede made it look so easy — gave him a two-shot margin over Xander Schauffele, who hit all 14 fairways in his round of 65.

“I think my mind is very good when it’s simple, and when things are very easy, and that’s what I’ve felt like I’ve been able to do over the last couple of weeks,” Aberg said.

He was at 12-under 132 on the TPC Sawgrass he occasionally calls home, though Aberg had not played the Stadium Course this year until a practice round Tuesday. He chose Ponte Vedra Beach as home after finishing at Texas Tech.

The stress came late in the day with Scheffler, the world's No. 1 player who has the longest current cut streak on the PGA Tour at 69. He missed two birdie chances and then had into trouble in the rough on the 14th hole for a bogey. Then, he missed a 30-inch par putt on the par-5 16th.

That put him at 2 over, still having to face the island green and the hardest hole at Sawgrass.

Scheffler found land on the 17th for par. Standing on the 18th tee, he was 14 shots out of the lead and anything but par or better would have sent him home from a tournament on the weekend for the first time since August 2022.

He drilled 3-wood down the middle, hit his approach to 8 feet and made birdie for a 73.

Also making the cut with a few nervous moments was Rory McIlroy, whose back is getting better by the day but whose putter is ailing. McIlroy birdied the par-5 ninth at the end of his 71 to make sure he'd be playing the weekend. He and Scheffler, Nos. 1 and 2 in the world, were at 1-over 145.

Schauffele's lone bogey came on a careless three-putt bogey on the par-3 13th, his fourth hole of the day, when he missed a putt just over 2 feet. The rest of his round was rock solid, and the two-time major champion is starting to build some momentum.

He wasn't aware he hit every fairway until it was mentioned to him.

“Definitely nice to hit all of them, especially on this property,” Schauffele said. “For the most part I felt like I was in control and felt like I was attacking the golf course versus playing defensive.”

Sawgrass allowed for that on a gorgeous day of sunshine, a light wind and greens that were receptive, ideal for scoring on a course that provides low rounds for those who avoided big trouble.

Cameron Young, who contended at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, had a 67 and was three shots behind. Young is a big talent who finally broke through for his first PGA Tour title last summer, and then was America's best in a losing Ryder Cup cause in his home state of New York.

The Players has been a mystery to him, though. He has yet to finish in the top 50 the three times in four years that he made the cut. But he was dialed in on a course he described as “tricky.”

“I feel if you’re not decisive, if you’re unsure of what you want to do, it can really kind of rear its head at you,” Young said. “The holes where we’re strictly just trying to get it in the fairway ... I didn’t hit all of them, but I made a bunch of really good golf swings. And I feel like that kind of wins out over here.”

Justin Thomas followed his 79-79 return from back surgery at Bay Hill with a 68-68 start at The Players. He was at 8-under 136, along with Corey Conners (67).

The highlight for Thomas was following a bad miss left of the green on the par-5 11th — the pin was to the left — and hitting a perfect pitch-and-run into the cup for eagle.

“Pretty sick chip,” Thomas said. “Not one I necessarily expect to get up-and-down all the time. But I have pretty good belief in my short game, and when you’re in the fairway, you have a lot more control of the ball. Just trying to visualize it and see it and hit my spot, and luckily the hole got in the way. It was nice to steal one there.”

He played alongside Scheffler and saw him endure the final two holes with the cut at stake. Thomas has been on the cut line, and he knows Sawgrass plenty well.

“If you’re on the cut line and you’re standing on 17, if you hit it in the water, you’re all but done,” Thomas said. “Then the same kind of goes for 18 on the tee shot. It’s every bit as hard as trying to win a golf tournament.”

What he saw from Scheffler was some timing issues, but nothing he found alarming.

“He's still hitting shots that not many people on planet earth can hit in the same rounds,” Thomas said. “It’s just golf. He’s been hitting it pretty much where he wants within like a blanket size for what seems like two or three years. He’s still had a pretty damned good year.”

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Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland reacts to his putt on the 11th green during the second round of The Players Championship golf tournament Friday, March 13, 2026, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Scottie Scheffler chips onto the 11th green during the second round of The Players Championship golf tournament Friday, March 13, 2026, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Cameron Young and his caddie line up a shot on the ninth green during the second round of The Players Championship golf tournament Friday, March 13, 2026, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Xander Schauffele hits off the 10th tee during the second round of The Players Championship golf tournament Friday, March 13, 2026, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Ludvig Aberg of Sweden acknowledges applause from the gallery after sinking his putt on the 11th green during the second round of The Players Championship golf tournament Friday, March 13, 2026, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific hopes regulators will be convinced this time that its $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern that it detailed for the second time Thursday will be good for the country.

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board rejected Union Pacific's initial application because regulators wanted more details about how the deal would affect the competitive balance between the five remaining major freight railroads and the impact on customers.

Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena said the new application makes an even stronger case for the benefits of the merger that he believes would shave a day or two off the delivery time for many shipments because they would no longer have to be handed off between two railroads in the middle of the country. The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad projects that the merger could lead to shifting 2.1 million truckloads off the highway onto trains.

But the STB established a high bar for major railroad mergers like this one around the turn of the century after past rail mergers snarled freight and led to prolonged disruptions while two railroads worked to integrate their networks. Now Union Pacific has to demonstrate that this deal will enhance competition.

The deal includes a provision that if the STB requires more than $750 million in concessions Union Pacific can consider walking away, but it won't automatically doom the deal, the railroads disclosed Thursday as they submitted a copy of their merger agreement.

Currently, Norfolk Southern and CSX serve the eastern U.S. while Union Pacific and BNSF serve the west, and the two major Canadian rails compete where they can with their tracks crossing Canada and extending into the United States and Mexico.

A merged Union Pacific would likely control nearly 40% of the nation’s freight, but the railroad said that currently BNSF delivers that much of the nation's freight. So the railroads said the deal would shift which railroad dominates the market but wouldn't dramatically change the competitive balance.

But competitors BNSF and CPKC railroads joined a new coalition Wednesday to highlight concerns that the deal could hurt shippers and eventually consumers if it leads to higher rates for companies that have few options besides rail to get their raw materials and deliver their products. The coalition also includes trade groups for chemical and agricultural shippers and the unions that represent engineers and track maintenance workers.

“This did not begin with a customer asking for a UP-NS merger to happen,” BNSF CEO Katie Farmer said. “It’s driven by Wall Street on the promise of a big shareholder payout. It will eliminate competition, raise costs for consumers, and destabilize the supply chain that powers the American economy.”

But the biggest rail union and hundreds of shippers have backed the deal that would cut the number of major freight railroads across America down to five.

Union Pacific has promised that every union employee who has a job with either railroad at the time of the merger will have a job for life although the workforce could still shrink through attrition if the number of shipments slows down. But UP sounded an optimistic note Thursday and predicted that more than 1,200 new jobs will be created by the third year after the deal to handle the increased freight.

Previously, the railroads predicted 900 new jobs. But the new traffic data the railroads analyzed from all the major freight railroads convinced executives that more job growth is likely.

If the STB accepts this new application, regulators will likely spend more than a year analyzing every aspect of the deal.

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FILE - A Norfolk Southern freight train rolls past the U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works, in Clairton, Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

FILE - A Union Pacific worker walks between two locomotives that are being serviced in a railyard in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Dec. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Josh Funk, File)