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The countdown is on. We’re officially in the Ryder Cup stadium.
With another three months to go, each week provides the campaign with an opportunity to secure a valuable place in either squad. Last week, Brooks Koepka made as strong a statement as possible. But a quieter statement was made by Sepp Straka, for example, whose PGA T7 finish provided a huge boost to his chances of playing for the Europeans.
This year’s Ryder Cup race consists of the toughest player assessment ever. On the US side, golfers who join the LIV Tour are not excluded from playing.
On the European side, LIV players are almost guaranteed to be disqualified. This makes Luke Donald’s job of filling out his team all the more important. How far does he want to look down the list?
This is not a post that tells you that Donald Need Take a closer look at a college senior now. It’s a softer alarm. That thing could start brewing later this summer, when we could see 23-year-old Swede Ludwig Aberg battle for a spot on the European side.
Not sure who is Aberg? You are forgiven. Just not for a long time. He is the No. 1 amateur in the world, finishing his collegiate career this month at Texas Tech. He just won his second consecutive Ben Hogan Award, a feat that has only been done once before (John Rahm).
As the highest-ranked player in the PGA Tour university program, he will immediately become a member of the PGA Tour for the remainder of 2023 and all of 2024. That means if he wants to, he’ll be able to enter a slew of PGA Tour events in the summer. John Deere Classic, 3M Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic – this level of events will be at his disposal. As mentioned above, each of those is just a chance. Could he make a splash like the rest of the golf world is focused on the US Open or The Open? It wouldn’t come as a complete shock.
If it sounds fancy, like some college senior-turned-pro would be ready for a Ryder Cup press, we wouldn’t suggest it would be. We just know that numbers rarely lie. Aberge is not your typical senior at your college. He’s 23 years old, for starters. Or two and a half years older than Tom Kim. He’s not exactly a 19-year-old new to the scene.
He’s also been playing great golf lately, making multiple cuts on the PGA Tour in March, headlining T24 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It’s a small sample size so far, but it was the kind of golf that analytics site DataGolf is taking note of. Aberge is currently listed as the 13th best player available on the European side. He is ranked 80th in the DataGolf World Ranking, higher than the aforementioned likes of Thomas Dietry, Danny Willett, Nikolai Hajogard and Sepp Straka.
Over the past three months, Aberg has averaged 1.1 real strokes earned, according to DataGolf, which analyzes performance across all rounds and levels so that, say, Aberg’s win at the Big 12 tournament or the Norman, Oklahoma NCAA regional can be compared.
The Aberge 1.1 is bigger than that of Adrian Mironek and Shane Lowry, two professionals who will no doubt be part of the RC conversation. A deep look at recent performances for European spectators shows a huge divide between the top seven players and the next crop. John Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Tyrell Hatton, Victor Hovland, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose all moved up, leaving everyone else claiming the bottom five. There will be a surprise selection, we just don’t know who.
The fact that Aberg ranks so high on DataGolf’s Ryder Cup page is a factor facing Donald and Team Europe. Not far down the list is 2021 captain, Padraig Harrington, who continues to play some solid golf himself. Can Buddy hang? It’s not entirely outrageous.
The host course, Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, is bound to be groomed for the precision rather than the bomb and measure mentality that elevates so many American players. European pros like Aaron Ray, Jordan Smith or Yannick Powell will all have a very long look at the captaincy selection in Rome this fall… so why not Aberge too?
It will all come down to what gives priority to Donald and his assistant. We’re just here to provide the current warning, prediction, or diagnosis for the team that Euros is destined to build. They will consider experience, form, physique, etc. But what does the twelfth man really need? They need to be comfortable playing with anyone, sit down for a session or two and then get ready for a one-on-one game on Sunday. Anything beyond that is gravy.