Warming Up with Ludvig Åberg

Ludvig Åberg does things his own way. And what way is that? Come hang out with the Swedish superstar and GOLF’s Dylan Dethier for a half-hour range session and you’ll find out. Åberg, the World No. 5 and recent Genesis Invitational champ, dives into his unique player-caddie meetings, why he likes to practice into the wind, his favorite ball flight, how he works the ball right and left, his favorite drill, where he stands on playing vs. practicing, how 7-wood became his favorite club and, best of all, what he loves about golf.

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ludig how do you say welcome to warming up in [Music] Swedish go what he said [Music] all right guys next up on the ludvig oberg ludig thanks for being here thank you thanks for having me uh so pretty simple deal here yep we want to know what it’s like when you warm up when you prep for a big round okay uh before the final round of a major championship yeah or the first round of you know any old Event Y where would you start like now we’re at the we’re at the range how long before now has your process started have you been in the gym have you been stretching what’s been going on yeah so I normally I try to get to the golf course um obviously depending on traffic whatever but I always try to get to the golf course about just over two hours before um before my tea time so I’ll meet with my caddy uh Joe we we’ll sit down somewhere quiet and we’ll kind of go over the pins and nice um just to make sure that you know CU obviously the wind changes every day hole locations might change the way you try to approach a hole as well so uh we always try to go through that and then I’ll go get something to eat whether that’s breakfast lunch prend depending on the time and then I’ll head to the gymm for a little physical warmup nice all right so you’d be a little more limber than maybe you are right now but then what what club would you start with I always start with my S UH 60 you got two 60s in here I got two 60s right now um it would be bad if I had 260s in the tournament um but today I do so I’m going to pick one of them um and and then yeah I’ll start hitting a few lower ship chips uh shorter shots just to get a little bit more for us here um and I read that you used to travel with 22 clubs everywhere is that still something that you do uh I think that was taken a little bit out of context but I I travel with uh quite a few different options um I like to have those options CU obviously the 60 might change a little bit depending on the grass and depending on you know what kind of sand there is in the bunkers and um but you know we always get that sorted Tuesday or Wednesday or something like that and so right now what are you feeling you’re hitting these little half 60s are you trying to hit at a certain yardage or you just no I’m just trying to get a feel for how the club interacts with the ground um and then I always like to cuz my tendency is I’m I’m kind of like dragging the handle cutting across a little bit too much so I like to feel like a little bit inside a little bit outside so I get the feel of all the all the different shots so I might hit you know one little try to draw it a little bit one where I try to hold it a little bit um so you’re like more or less messing around yes for starters that’s what I do absolutely and then I might hit one little bit higher and then one a little bit lower cuz a tournament round you’re going to be facing so many different shots that ideally you would want to be able to hit that beforehand you know um is there a dominant grass type in Sweden that you had to like make a bunch of adjustments when you moved here uh yeah like obviously we don’t have Bermuda in Sweden is way tooold for that so we just have I mean normal bent grass um and uh so yeah when I came over first time and I saw Bermuda I’m like uh because obviously it reacts very different from um from from what I was used to at the time sure yeah I’m from Massachusetts so I kind of grew up in that Northern climate was very foreign and scary yeah and the idea of like figuring out grain never mind reading Grain on the greens was all very scary it was so hard wasn’t it so yeah that’s that’s basically what I do um you know I might hit a few more a little bit higher something like that just I like that one just to play around with it a little bit um just to get a feel for where the club is how it’s coming in and all those things how about mindset wise are you pretty intense at this point in the process or like if I saw you on the Range beforeand would you be like oh this guy looks pretty laidback yes I think so um I’m not like I’m never going to be the guy probably I’m saying that now but I’m probably not going to be you know wearing headphones you know super no don’t come talk to me I’m always going to be a little bit more loose um speaking to my caddy speaking to my coach whatever um maybe you know crack a few jokes or whatever but it’s not going to be like don’t talk to me you know mean but you may not also be the guy like walking the range and stopping in for a CH no I’m not going to go chitchat but yeah I’m I’m I’m also not going to be super locked in all right so then do you go to full Swings with your 60 or you move on the next uh no I don’t actually so that’s the fun I don’t really do full Swings with the 60 um I mean on the golf course I do sometimes but uh I like to touch all the wedges so I like to do sand wedge I like to do gap wedge nice all right here is a couple of each of these and are these still uh half shots so these are all yeah they’re still half shots but obviously a little bit longer longer so depending on you know I might try to hit a Target or I might try to hit a certain flight or something like that um when uh when you get to the driving range and we’re hitting into the wind like it is today yeah is that emotionally devastating like it is for me or uh no I wouldn’t say so I mean sometimes it’s almost like if you want to practice it’s almost nice to have it into the wind yeah CU if you know that or if you can come out from that session and hitting it nice you know that you know things are are looking pretty good um cuz it will expose like any weakness that you have or if I’m working on something you know if it’s downwind you might not get the same feedback no downwind you feel great though yeah you feel great good for confidence and then you’re like first t- shot is into the when you’re like yeah yeah yeah um so yeah at this point I’m probably hitting a little bit longer shots maybe to a Target sometimes not um that was right at the Target all right so we’re at TPC Saw Grass how long has this been like your home uh about a week now yeah so not too long people won’t see this for a few months but like so far so good so far it’s great I mean they take great care of us uh obviously this whole back side is is for tour players yeah it’s really nice to get that you know private can come here at any time you can hit balls um staff is amazing they take great care of the turf the you know everything we need in terms of balls and uh and privacy so it’s it’s been great so far that’s fantastic right so how far are you hitting this shot well I’m getting a little warm now soow me this one’s probably going to be close to 110 maybe meters I’m still in meters you still do meters that’s one thing I was going to ask you if I say like 30 yards do you immediately know what that is or you have to go through like a little proc I still know what it is I just don’t do it you know so in Sweden do the golf courses have like both or is it just strictly going to met interesting don’t do any sort of yards yeah I still don’t know what an inch is I mean no one really should when you kind of that’s maybe un American to say Fahrenheit still like all these units come it’s really hard but yards is probably the one that I got most knowledge of and so has Joe then learned yeah he he had to convert yeah cuz he’s always been um yards he’s always been yards for sure both Tom and Ricky so right he had to do a little bit of conversion training I guess and so you guys but you guys really go through some stuff before every single round yeah that’s cool we do I don’t think every player caddy pair like would meet like that a couple hours before yeah I think it just simplifies things cuz when we do get to the golf course we’re like no this is what we said we were going to do yeah and it it kind of takes away all these like emotional decisions that you make on a golf course um cuz sometimes you’re like a I just made two Bogies and but no dude we said we were going to do this so interesting do it you know what I mean so it’s like sticking to the plan I mean the word I’ve already heard you say a few times and I know you emphasize is that idea of simplifying yeah would you say that that’s what you’re striving for in my head because that way I can prepare for it in here so I know before I get to number seven I’m going to hit this t-ball with a club most likely yeah unless something wind wise has changed um so you can stick to the plan yeah and I know if I get to 12 at TPC sress I’m going to hit jar and I’m going to go for it and it’s just makes things easier instead of standing on the T box like should I hit four should I hit this should I you know mean um so I think that’s where I’m at with those things um do you make in round adjustments then based on how you’re feeling like if driver Miss Fairway then you’re like well maybe I won’t go for the driveable par 4 with the I try not to to be honest um I think because driving is one of my strength I like to use it as much as I can um and just because I miss a few it doesn’t really change that um but uh but maybe you know if you’re coming down to last couple holes of a tournament and you need to do something you you know you know might need to play a little conservative you might need to be a little bit more aggressive then that I think that’s a different uh angle to it I keep interrupting you here but what are you holding nine iron uh yes I got a nine iron in my hand and do you hit all of your irons because we’ve had a couple guys that like like Brooks kepa says he what he’s he’s he never hits his odd irons like ever oh really yeah I think it’s a little little bit different I don’t have like a set system where you know I go from the eight AR to the sixr and sometimes I go 9 to seven I always like to do it two two jump so like two CL jump but you might switch back and forth between the odd you might have odd days and even days exactly see I think that’s more sensible because then you’re not just only wearing out half your iron set but yeah I don’t really um I don’t really have like I never hit my N9 on on the Range like yeah I’ll do it some sometimes you said sometimes you’ll fight you know dragging the handle maybe opening the face and maybe that would lead to hitting more of a fade than you would want like do you favor a ball flight I always like uh if I miss it I want to miss it right because that’s an easier Miss to play with um like the short right Miss exactly I think the hard left Miss is tricky to play with like I don’t have to hit it perfect for me to go out and score really well if I have that short right Miss in my bag but if I have the hard left Miss I’m not sure I can go out and score really well you know what I mean I know that I I have I know the hard left Miss so that one could be pretty devastating so on the Range then are you trying to hit it straight or are you trying to hit a little fade um I can do a little bit of both yeah um because on the golf course I like to do a little bit of both so you know it could be I always like to have a Target but it can be you know okay this one I’m going to try to draw it in there and this one I’m going to hold it up and um when I get further up in the bag let’s say up to maybe a seven or a six iron um I also like to be like okay I’m keeping this right of it with a drill I keep this left of it with a fade you know just to try to simulate what you would do on the golf course right so when you’re I mean you’re not hitting a lot of like Slinger hooks though right is more like you started somewhere exactly it falls to the right either Falls right or it holds it this way how do you do that I like to keep like once again like you said I like to keep it very simple so I just do it all in my setup um so like if I’m going to try and play a draw right of this pin I’ll aim a little right and I’ll close the face in my setup so and you just and then different um I might have a little bit of a feeling like I’m I’m coming a little bit more in on the inside but it’s not like I’m I’m trying to release it different I’m not trying to do any of those things um and obviously moving the ball back to my feet it should start a little bit further right there’s your little baby draw so I think for me I learned pretty quickly like that’s the easiest way for me to feel it because that way I’m I’m keeping the the big motion the same and I’m just changing a little bit in the input to make that look different um and then obviously the opposite if I want to do the other way I’ll just move it up a little bit in my feet and and open the St and it should hold it a little bit back into that right to left wind a little bit there too interesting but when you’re like if you were going to do that in a round would you think about okay here’s the little ball position adjustment or is it just so second nature no I I would absolutely um do that because obviously you know playing golf is is hard so you want to for me at least I want to keep it so easy the easier I can the better um so I try not to change too much but normally if I miss something it’s probably because it’s going to be off you know somewhere in the setup maybe my grip is off maybe my ball position was off so there’s so many different things that’s why I like to keep it so simple because does your golf swing meaningfully change like has it changed the Last 5 Years or something do you think uh not a ton to be honest um I think it changed quite a bit from when I was say 16 to 18 maybe that’s when it changed the most um but since it’s been very very similar I’d say um me and my coach were it feels like we’re always working on the same things um which I think is a good thing um and it it just keeps it a little bit easier I think yeah so how does that work with your coach Hans he he’s the same coach you’ve had since scho right since I started high school so I started working with him in 2015 um so that’s what 9 years ago yeah Fu getting old and he’s still in Sweden yeah he is so he still lives where I went to high school are you guys in constant communication or is it like he’s taught you to to fish on your own like where you I that’s one of the good things with him because he’s always been you know making you think about it yourself he’s he might sit on the answer and he might know what it is but he’s always going to make you like think about it um so I think from an early stage in our in our relationship that’s how we worked um and then yeah I mean we do facetimes on the Range uh we do sessions together and then I try to get him over here as much as I can um it he he’s able to come over more now than he did when I was in college um so obviously that makes it a little bit easier and but yeah after every tournament we always have a chat uh we go through stats and all those things and make sure that whatever we’re working on is going in the right direction his approach sounds more holistic than just kind of Swing coach and what is his like core philosophy you think I think if you were to ask him he would be more of a performance coach yeah in terms of he likes to take in like just what we talked about well it’s not just you know P6 and and P2 so it’s a lot more of like uh what did you think about this decision was this the right call was this the right club and what were you trying to do and and what was your Target and those things and I think it’s a healthy way to do it um because obviously there’s a lot that weighs into a bad golf shot it it’s not just how you came in with an open Club face or a close face I think but you also know P6 and P2 yeah pretty pretty pretty well I think all right you’ve got seven iron seven iron yep it’s just so straight yeah I mean I think that’s what we’ve we’ve never really been working one way or the other I feel like I play my best when I’m able to do a little bit of what I want to um do you ever do the thing where if you’re fighting a slice and you try to hit Hooks and if you’re fighting hook you try to hit slices do you calibrate how do you get back to zero so we do we have this nine window drill that we do a lot and uh I think it’s the best thing ever um so is that just like yeah you you imagine a grid with nine different Windows um so you have low fade mid fade high fade and obviously all the other ones and I I like to do it with my seven wood because then it really exposes like hey I need to flight it I need to hit it high because it gets like how do you hit a low seven wood exactly exactly we’ll get there in a few clubs hopefully show me but um you want your five yeah I’ll do the five so yeah that’s uh that’s a good one uh that I always like to do maybe not in the warm-up before round uh that would be more so like let’s say after the round maybe uh training week obviously I’ll do it um but I think those are those are always good and it kind of gets you back to zero plus it gives you a an idea of okay this is what we’re struggling with and this is what we can do better better and maybe one day I’m just nailing the draws but I can’t hold it and you know so yeah I think it just gives you a good idea of where you stand and where you are and what kind of trajectory so we’re hitting into the wind like are you going to bring your ball flight down significantly situation I think instinctively that’s what you do um and how do you do that also so in setup also in setup yeah um obviously my swing is going to be a little bit shorter um but I like to get a little bit closer to the ball I’ll choke down just a touch on the um on the grip and then just move it back maybe ball or so for a for a five iron that was really low and then you know it’s it’s because you do all those changes it’s going to come out low yeah I mean there’s there’s way around it yeah so I would prefer to do that than I don’t know trying to feel more shling and and all those things I just to me that’s the easiest way to do it all right yeah let’s see one more of those let’s see maybe like maybe turn it over a little bit for me mhm little right so yeah like naturally when you say that I just move a little bit like I’ll drop my right foot back and I’ll close the face to tou you’re well trained guys that’s pretty yeah so I think from an early age I kind of figured out that’s the easiest way for me to do it it might not be for everyone but was golf always like a pretty solitary thing for you growing up or was it uh when you got to school you had a good support system and yeah it was definitely when I got to high school um that’s when cuz I grew up I never practiced when I was younger I always played I heard your coach saying that you had to learn how to yeah so hece he was like dude you got to go to the range you got to go hit practice and hit balls and I’m like no I want to go play yeah um because that’s how I grew up playing like I never never touched the range of my home course when I was young um so I think I learned these things from just playing and scoring and yeah seeing shots hitting shots and then once I got to high school and Hans he would teach me obviously the fundamentals of the golf swing and the mechanics and the my practice got a lot better um and it’s the still same today I still like to practice a lot more in my I like to play a lot more in my practice than range rat hitting balls all day yeah I mean do you think that that’s the best way to learn is by playing a lot I mean I personally think so because ultimately you play golf you’re not swinging golf um I obviously the practice is an important piece of it I think you have to have that down but I think you’re able to play really good golf even though your mechanics are a little bit off um just from like decision making shot shape chasing a score and yeah you know what happens inside when I’m four under through five or I’m six over through seven like all these different things that you can’t really simulate on the Range yeah um and I think because I played so much early on you know I I was able to handle that pretty well I think yeah I mean it’s interesting we’ve kind of had like talk to people on both sides of the spectrum where okay Scotty sheer best player in the world right he is obsessed with playing golf and you know working the I mean he practices a lot too don’t get me wrong but like when he’s at home it seems like he just loves playing golf so we’ll go out and play all the time and then Bryson we talked to him and unless he’s like filming a YouTube video or playing a tournament he will not play golf like he will just sit on the Range so it’s crazy that yeah that one game can have so many different approaches it speaks to the personality of the player how your brain works how it operates in the best way and people are just different like there’s not a that’s what’s so cool about there’s not a right and wrong way to do it yeah um all right what do you got five iron you want to hit a couple seven Woods sure I know you’re still on the comeback from uh yeah do it oh you’ve got your Rider cup Europe head cover that’s probably that’s my favorite in the bag I know beat up a little bit you got to get you have to get a uh 2020 five Edition before long all right so this is seven wood yeah have you always had a seven wood no so basically hit the Drone I in college I would always play two iron yeah um because it was cool or because it was I used this one I used this one for a long time a 718 tmb um it’s still in my bag yeah and and I’ll take it out every now and then um but uh and it was great off the te not as great into par five second shots um whereas the seven would when I tried it out I mean this was late 23 so about a year ago probably um I started playing around with it a little bit more and some of the best shots I’ve hit this year has actually been with the S one cuz you can hit it so high you can stop it softer uh and it’s great into part fives all right so hit us like a just a nice high one like say okay you’ve got I mean what what yardage would you hit this into the wind for your second shot into a obviously I think in no wind I would hit this about 225 230 M okay um oh yeah oh boy so right now that would probably go what 200 maybe 20 yards wi maybe something like that um and then obviously if you and that’s what’s so cool about this club I think you can I feel like I can hit it high and turn it over and I can hit it really high and cut it you know what I mean yeah um can’t really do that with a uh two iron that’s just like dropping a little bit to the right that’s going to like spin back into this wind I actually hit one of my favorite shots this year was here at s grass wait which one on 11 uh one of the days oh yeah it was a front it was a front pin on the par five just over the water and I hit this high cut and it stopped really fast and um so yeah I’ve hit a few is this your favorite club now I think so it’s getting there at least it is actually getting there and when you mentioned one of your favorite shots okay so now you turned that one over a little bit is that going to carry further than the cut you just hit beforeand definitely do you have a catalog of favorite shots you’ve ever hit no I don’t um like what’s number one number [Music] one God me sounds like that seven yeah I think the amount of shots that I’ve hit with this one is actually qu pretty high I think that one um I hit one as well at um Us open at Pinehurst with this one as well on number 10 um so yeah I’ve I’ve had I hit one in Paris that was really nice with this too so how about Augusta does anything stand out your favorite shot that you hit that week I actually hit um one of them that I thought was really cool and it maybe wasn’t the flashiest of shots but it was the second shot on 13 the last day um I just hit in the water on 11 and part 12 and then 13 I knew Scotty was you know making birdies whatever um and I kind of been struggling with that shot all week cuz obviously the ball’s so above your feet and the wind is off your left and you don’t want to miss right or left um and and I hit a nice fore iron uh middle of the green and kind of released to the back so I think that one stands out to me got you in position for your yeah and I think a little bit of the situation as well that you know I felt like I needed to do that and and I did it so um you know ended up not being enough but it was in that moment it was pretty cool all right so how do you hit a low one then how do you hit a low seven so yeah same same idea same principle of uh choking down a little bit getting a little bit closer and um I my my stance will be a little bit more narrow um so you see I’m almost yeah quite a bit down choking and is this going to go a lot shorter uh a l yeah carry wise yeah for sure oh that’s sweet but it still comes out hot huh yeah I think I I mean because the smash is still high it’ll it’ll still go um it’s just obviously the launch is very different all right we’ll get one more of these we get you to hit a couple drivers yep and it’s nice to be able to do that with this club but then you can also send it up Sky it yeah is it going to be strange now going through all of these like crazy first time experiences a second time playing the Maj playing the Masters playing the rider cup I’d like to think it’s going to be a little little bit easier uh yeah easier because you’ve been through it or because literally you’ve seen like easier emotionally and so process yeah I think so okay um obviously there’s going to be a lot less work Monday through Wednesday and the you know all these golf course that I saw this year this past year has been the first time really right apart from a few um but um so yeah I think that will make it a little bit easier and then you know just the fact that you know you’ve been there before and um you’ve seen the golf courses you’ve been in the situations and you’ll be able to build on that were you nervous oh yeah absolutely you never show it no and I think anyone who says they’re not nervous I mean that’s just a lie yeah like we’re all humans we’re all going to feel the same things that you guys are watching and um yeah obviously there’s a lot of nerves and excitement involved all right you’ve got driver out yep uh uh is there anything sort of different or interesting about the way you set up D um yeah obviously I’m going to because I create more attack angle I’m going to be having a little bit more spine angle this way um naturally MH um and then obviously set up the ball’s going to be further up because I’m hitting up on it um I think the only thing that I’m trying to feel with my driver is because my tendency is to get a little bit quick and I’ll go here and then from here the only way I can go is this way so here and then I’ll get under it and I’ll flip my hands so I like to feel like my back swing is really slow and that I’m keeping my head this way so head back slow back swing yeah not necessarily going this way but just keeping it from okay my my back going this way from sending forward exactly so if I can do that and then from here I can just shift the weight and and cover it a little B better and so is that kind of your swing thought right now so like warming up before round those are my feels um and and you know hopefully they’ll correlate to a good thing yeah I mean hopefully you guys can see that it’s just an absolute missile dead straight and you’ve got your uh front foot a little bit flared out exactly yeah just to make it easier on my hips cuz do you have tight hips I do yeah like I mean like the rest of the world yeah I think so it just makes it a little bit easier um what’s your favorite part about golf uh that’s a massive question is it yeah I me it’s kind of existential but um you can just say one thing you like about go I think it’s so it’s so simple but it’s so hard and it’s so logical but it’s still so hard um and you’re never going to be finished you’re never going to figure it out you can you maybe think you are and you maybe think you have a come a long ways but there’s so much more to learn um you know there’s always a better score out there there’s always a better shot and I think just you know trying to figure that out is is what excites me um and you know you’re always going to come out here on a good day and be like well this like there’s so much I can do you know what I mean and there’s never going to be like I’ve done this I’ve done that you know I think I think that’s what excites me so you still like the process of it a lot 100% yeah I think so that seems important yes all right what are you trying to do with this driver here um I think like I touched on before I want my Miss to to do this I want it to leak a little bit okay um because like I said that hard left Miss especially with the driver is is hard to play with um so I want to be hitting a pretty straight Ball but if anything if I miss it um I hope it to leak a little bit sure enough and that goes hand inand with my tendency of what I’m trying to do in my swing right because I can’t do this because that one is just going to what’s so that left Miss is that what that’s what scares comes not maybe scares me but I just hate it I’m projecting my own my own golf beer all right let’s hit one more driver because I don’t want you to miss your tea time here have you ever done that you ever missed a tea time uh not in the tournament I mean plenty of times when I’m at home but W yeah yeah not in the tournament and will you picture a uh like the first t- shot say with your last driver you’re like okay this is the what I’m going to hit on I used to do that in college actually um I haven’t done that in a while though I mean I guess some guys do it it’s not bad some do I think some don’t n so that one’s nice to me because I feel like that one’s never going to go left yeah and if I miss it it’s just going to go a little bit more right a few yards right yeah so awesome all right is there like a wedge that you hit before you go to the first then I always go back to the seven AR there you go so I guess that would be the one thing that when I’m done hitting drives I think just because it kind of normalizes the swing a little bit cuz the driver is so different seven iron is like the kind of the middle of the bag it’s like the bang average you have any superstitions then right before you go to the first te um not really to be honest try to stay away from those things that’s true ask me in a couple years and I might say something different but I guess then if something goes wrong then all of a sudden you’re spooked all right last one one here make it a good one does it have to be a good one for you to leave the range uh no not necessarily actually I just almost got the Drone I know you almost got the Drone all right cool ludig easy does it thanks for warming up with us thanks dude [Music] what is what what are you feeling seeing you do like this yeah yeah um what’s your is this your current swing thought I feel I feel the face A Little Bit Stronger here cuz I tend want to be a little more sh I tend to do a little bit more this so I like to feel a little my hand like this that’s the only I like that I feel like if we just followed you around during the day we just like you see me in the grocery store I’m going to be like this all right good stuff thanks Li all right you’re released