Ludvig Aberg Opens RBC Heritage With a 63, Because Apparently Contending Every Week Is His New Hobby

Ludvig Aberg opened the 2026 RBC Heritage with an 8-under 63, and at this point it feels like the guy just lives on Page 1 of leaderboards now.

According to Golfweek’s first-round recap, Aberg got to 8 under at Harbour Town Golf Links with a back-nine push that included a birdie on the par-4 16th and another at the par-3 17th. It was not loud. It was not chaotic. It was just another one of those rounds where Aberg makes elite golf look irritatingly normal.

That gave him the solo lead after Thursday, one shot clear of the field.

The leaderboard actually has some juice

The top of the board after Round 1 looked like this:

• Ludvig Aberg -8
• Harris English -7
• Viktor Hovland -7
• Michael Brennan -6
• Gary Woodland -6
• Ryan Fox -6
• Rickie Fowler -6
• Andrew Novak -6
• Matt Fitzpatrick -6

So yes, Aberg leads, but this is not some sleepy Thursday where everybody else is six shots back and ordering dinner. There are names everywhere here.

The one that jumps out most is Viktor Hovland, who kept piling up birdies and very nearly turned this into a full-blown course-record conversation. Harris English stayed right there too, and Rickie Fowler hanging around at 6 under gives the event a little extra personality heading into Friday.

Harbour Town is still doing Harbour Town things

One of the more interesting side notes this week is that this is the first RBC Heritage after the recent Davis Love III-led restoration of Harbour Town.

That matters because Harbour Town has always been one of the best “stop trying to overpower everything” courses on Tour. It asks for control, angles, and adult decision-making. You can get away with bombing driver all over the property at some PGA Tour stops. Harbour Town tends to expose that nonsense pretty quickly.

So of course Aberg came out and looked perfectly comfortable. His game is built for this kind of test, especially when he’s driving it cleanly and keeping the round organized.

Gary Woodland deserves a mention every damn time right now

Let’s not ignore Gary Woodland.

Golfweek noted Woodland opened with a bogey-free 65, which is impressive on its own, but it lands harder because of everything surrounding his comeback. After winning in Houston and continuing to talk openly about the mental side of his recovery after brain surgery, every good round now feels like more than a stat line.

And honestly, that’s earned. It would have been easy for Woodland’s story to flatten into a sentimental headline and then disappear. Instead, he keeps putting up real golf.

Justin Thomas went from defending champ to absolute mess

Meanwhile, Justin Thomas had the opposite kind of Thursday.

A year after matching the Harbour Town course record in Round 1, the defending champ opened this year’s RBC with a 5-over 76. Golfweek’s recap had the whole ugly timeline: an opening double, three more ugly numbers in a row around the turn, another bogey, another double, then a closing bogey for good measure.

It was one of those scorecards where you stop scanning and just go, “yeah, alright, that’s enough.”

The no-cut format means he’s still around, but unless something completely stupid happens, this is not shaping up like a repeat bid.

The actual takeaway

The biggest thing here is not just that Aberg shot 63.

It’s that he keeps showing up in these spots and looking less like an emerging star and more like a permanent problem for everyone else. After the Players disappointment and the constant near-misses that always seem to circle his name, this felt like another reminder that he’s not drifting. He’s right there.

And Harbour Town is the kind of place where good rounds usually mean something. You do not accidentally fake your way to 63 here.

If he keeps driving it like this and the putter stays even remotely cooperative, he is going to be a pain in the ass to catch this week.

For more on the current Tour mood, read our take on Rory McIlroy skipping RBC Heritage, the earlier field reset in RBC Heritage gets the post-Masters hangover, and the bigger-picture Aberg angle in Aberg’s collapse and the course-management lesson behind it.