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Ludvig Aberg has been a PGA Tour professional for no more than a month, and he’s already turning heads with his play.
The recent Texas Tech graduate and former amateur ranked #1 in the world showed specific reason Thursday at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. The 23-year-old hit every fairway and missed just one green in the opening round at Detroit Golf Club on his way to a sparkling par 65.
What’s even more appealing is that Aberg had a minus nine before bogeying the final two holes, including his only green loss in regulation in the eighth (17th).
According to stats guru Justin Ray, Aberg’s round of 14 fairways, 17 greens while averaging over 300 yards from the tee on Thursday was only second on the PGA Tour this season. The first was John Rahm in the opening round of the Masters.
Unsurprisingly, Aberg leads Rocket Mortgage in strokes earned: off the tee by two runs and entering the third after a shot from the lead. This is his third start since becoming the first player to accept immediate membership on the PGA Tour by finishing first on the PGA Tour University Program.
He played well in his first two matches at the RBC Canadian Open and the Travelers Championship last week, scoring top 25s in both. However, this weekend will be his first opportunity in a legitimate feud since turning pro.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be in that position a lot this year in college, so I felt like I improved that season,” Aberg said Friday. “I’m looking forward to getting those same nerves here, which is going to be a little bit different, but I also think just being OK with it being a little bit different will help me a little bit.
“At the end of the day, I know what I’m capable of and I know I can hit golf putts, but you have to be able to handle everything else in this new place for me. So far I feel I’ve done pretty well. I’m just trying to do my best.” My effort and I try to embrace it as much as I can and see where that takes me.”
But perhaps looking further afield this weekend, Aberge’s impressive performance had a very important appearance: European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald.
According to The Golf Channel, Donald has asked to duet in the opening two rounds with the big-hitting Swede in a bid to scout him for one of his six captaincy picks for this year’s matches in Rome. And while it may seem strange to many still unfamiliar with Aberg to think of a player who only has three professional starts and hasn’t made a big appearance in the Ryder Cup, it really isn’t far from the case.
Analytics website DataGolf currently ranks Aberge as the 12th best European player in professional golf and 11th when you remove potentially underqualified LIV golfers from Marco Simone’s European side. The site takes into account Aberg’s performance in college events as well as his beginnings as an amateur on the PGA Tour. In the overall standings, he’s currently ahead of recent PGA Tour winner Seamus Power and member of last year’s Presidents Cup International team, Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
Aberg recently gained associate membership on the DP World Tour, which qualified him for the European side.
Not only that, but he certainly made a strong first impression on world number one Donald.
In text messages to Nick Dougherty of the Golf Channel, Donald said there were only a few other players who had the same “wow” factor when he first saw them. One of them was Rory McIlroy when Donald played him for the first time in the 2008 Dunhill Links tournament.
“Now he says Ludwig Aberge is one of those guys, too,” Dougherty said of his conversation with Donald. His driver is a huge weapon, he said, he makes the game look easy. As long as he continues to show form, he will definitely be considered in, he added [Ryder Cup] Team… this guy is going to be a star.”
Thanks to his play that puts him into Saturday’s penultimate pairing, Aberg gets a chance to meet another PGA Tour star, Rickie Fowler.
Once again, he nailed the first impression by drilling the first hole of his third round.