Ludvig Aberg leads RBC Heritage with Scottie Scheffler five shots behind

[p][b]"Anytime you are bogey-free and you make eight birdies, it's a good day,"[/b] said [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/aberg-ludvig/67ZVNhdN/"]Aberg[/a], who said solid work with his irons was key to his bogey-free effort at Harbour Town Golf Links at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.[/p][p][b]"(I) Felt like I was hitting the flights I was trying to do," [/b]he said. [b]"I was on the correct side of the flags, those kind of things that I really like to see. Then a few putts went in on the back nine that I didn't really do on the front."[/b][/p][p]Three-under through the first eight holes, Aberg kick-started a back-nine surge with a nine-foot birdie at the 10th.[/p][p]"It was a tricky read, kind of up and over, double breaker, and that was really nice," said Aberg, who got up and down for par at 11 before another birdie at 12.[/p][p]That was followed by a 22-foot birdie putt at the par-three 14th, and back-to-back birdies at 16 and 17.[/p][p][b]"It was nice to see the putt on 14 go in," [/b]he said.[b] "It was the longest putt I made today, I think. Obviously hit the right shot, short left, and then a good putt to end it off."[/b][/p][embed guid="a7651649-af27-4147-820f-4c0d8a55ca48" url="https://x.com/PGATOUR/status/2044895358455546095?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Aberg had a one-stroke lead over American [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/english-harris/f3SutOnp/"]Harris English[/a] and Norway's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/hovland-viktor/lWxyqX2t/"]Viktor Hovland[/a].[/p][p]Half a dozen players shared fourth on six-under 65, a group that included former US Open champions [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/fitzpatrick-matthew/6whOHmtf/"]Matt Fitzpatrick[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/woodland-gary/lQRqur2j/"]Gary Woodland[/a].[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mcilroy-rory/djwanksN/"]Rory McIlroy[/a], coming off his second straight Masters triumph on Sunday, skipped the elite signature event.[/p][p][b]World number one [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/scheffler-scottie/bXfIuBYu/"]Scottie Scheffler[/a], who finished runner-up to McIlroy at Augusta National after his weekend surge left him one stroke behind the Northern Ireland star, carded a three-under par 68.[/b][/p][p]Scheffler's week started with a bogey at the par-four first, where his tee shot went out-of-bounds on the right.[/p][embed guid="c6323167-1656-4057-a8ca-6f7a9d41c246" url="https://x.com/i/status/2044873720842354898" social-type="twitter" /][p][b]"It was looking like it was going to hit those trees and I guess it flew right through them and hit (a) path and went out of bounds,"[/b] said Scheffler, who admitted he didn't even know there was an out-of-bounds lurking there.[/p][p]He got on track with birdies at the third, fifth and sixth and after a bogey at the seventh, picked up two more strokes coming in.[/p][p][b]"I feel like I did some good stuff out there," [/b]Scheffler said.[b] "Conditions were tough late in the day. (I) would have liked to have had a better start, but outside of that, I felt like I executed pretty well."[/b][/p]