Ludvig Aberg only turned pro last June but he has already won twice and starred at the Ryder Cup. Will he continue to to rewrite the history books on his Major debut at Augusta?
No player has won The Masters on his debut since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. Just three players have ever done so in the last 90 years, two of them in the first two stagings. The list of players to have won any of golf’s big four on their very first attempt is a short one, too – just six. This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise; these are the tournaments that provide the sternest of tests – no one is meant to win one first time out.
This year could be different, for it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that a 24-year-old Swede by the name of Ludvig Aberg (you’ve heard of him, yes?) becomes the first player for 45 years to win at Augusta National having never played a professional round there. He’s that good and, as he says so himself, he’s ready.
“I mean, I’d like to think so, absolutely. I feel like I know my capabilities and I know my qualities,” says a relaxed Aberg, when we ask him whether he has the game to win a Major despite never having played in one. “All I can do is prepare for each event the best way I can and then see where that takes me.”
At this point, we need to rewind the clock just to underline what an incredibly quick start this very special talent has had to his career. It goes like this: graduates from college; turns pro; makes PGA Tour debut; records first DP World Tour win; gets picked to play the Ryder Cup; wins the Ryder Cup; wins on the PGA Tour for the first time; cracks the world’s top 50. All this in the space of six months.
“I don’t think this early, to be fair,” he admits, when we ask whether he expected to have achieved all this so soon. “I think at some point, maybe yes, but I think to be able to do it that quickly, probably no.”
Aberg was the first player to earn direct access to the PGA Tour via PGA Tour University, the programme that recognises the top seniors in the collegiate game. He finished his career at Texas Tech in May 2023 as the number one player in both PGA Tour University and the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Understandably, there was a lot of noise surrounding him when he made his professional debut on the PGA Tour at the Canadian Open in June.
“I wouldn’t be here without the college system, absolutely not,” says Aberg, who was born and raised in Eslov, a small town in the southern part of Sweden. “The college level is getting a lot better and it’s going to get even better, too, with the whole PGA Tour University programme basically giving players like me a chance to get an easier transition into the pro life. I’ll be forever in
