Ludvig Aberg is having a great season, but there’s an elephant in the room, staring him in the face.
While he’s continually been challenging the top of the leaderboard, having recorded five top 5s already this season, Aberg is yet to secure his elusive first victory in 2026. His best finish of the season was a T3 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Aberg led The Players heading into the back nine before collapsing down the stretch, putting his ball into the water twice. That hasn’t affected his form, but Aberg hasn’t quite been good enough to climb to the top of the leaderboard.
The Swede’s ball striking, the strength in his game, has been incredible all season, but his key weakness has held him back. Aberg’s putting, especially at the PGA Championship, has been poor.
So he made the change to a mallet putter, bringing a Scotty Cameron flatstick to his bag in the biggest putter change in his career. And the effects were immediate.
How Ludvig Aberg got on his new mallet putter
It was shocking how quickly Aberg’s mallet putter changed his fortunes on the greens. Through his first round at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club, the 26-year-old gained over two strokes with his putting, 2.08 to be exact.
If he were to continue at this pace, it would be his best putting performance according to strokes gained data since the 2023 RSM Classic, where he won the event, gaining 2.14 strokes to the field on the greens.
Putting was the best area of Aberg’s game statistically at Colonial, an incredible turnaround so quickly after putting this club in the bag. He’s four under par, two strokes behind the leaders after 18 holes of action.
You could call this an aberration, but it’s hard to put that argument forward when Aberg wasn’t the only player in the field to see this instant improvement in his putting after making a change.
Robert MacIntyre also saw incredible improvements with new mallet putter
Robert MacIntyre has seen a serious dip in his form after he was in contention to win The Players and the Texas Open. He’s missed two cuts since then, including a poor performance at The Masters, and hasn’t finished inside the top 40 in his last four events.
The Scotsman already used a mallet putter, but he made some tweaks to the club, moving to a Scotty Cameron 9.5R. He adjusted the club’s face and neck to change the balance and feel.
MacIntyre, like Aberg, also lost strokes on the greens in both of his last two events. But after making these tweaks to his putter, he gained 2.13 strokes to the field at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
He, too, had a massive turnaround in his putting performance, leading him to an 18-hole score of two-under par. If this form continues he’ll look to challenge for the win this week.
