Four months ago, Ludvig Aberg was playing against Bard Bjornevik Skogen and Sam Sommerhauser in the Thunderbird Collegiate. Four weeks from now, he’ll be playing against Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth in the Ryder Cup.
How did this happen?
For starters, Aberg won his last tournament out before Luke Donald selected him as a captain’s pick for the European Ryder Cup team on Monday. He did it in style, shooting 64 on Sunday with birdies on four of his last five holes. But that victory was really just the culmination of a summer of success for Aberg in the eyes of Donald.
After finishing T7 at the aforementioned Thunderbird Collegiate for Texas Tech, Aberg ripped off wins at the Big 12 Championship and NCAA Regionals in Norman, Oklahoma. That’s college golf, though, a far cry from the cauldron of a Ryder Cup Sunday. There must have been some bridge that connected the 23-year-old Swede to Rome.
If you had to circle a stretch to fit the criteria, it would probably be in July. Donald played with Aberg over the first two rounds of the Rocket Mortgage Classic where Aberg shot 65-67 to open the festivities. He walked away delighted with what he saw.
“[Donald] told me there have only been a few [players] that he’s played with for the very first time that have the ‘wow’ factor,” said Golf Channel’s Nick Dougherty during that event. “One of them is Rory. That was back in 2008 at the Dunhill Links. Now he says Ludvig Aberg is one of those guys as well. He said his driver is a huge weapon, he makes the game look effortless. He added that as long as he continues to show form, he will definitely be considered for the [Ryder Cup] team. … This guy is going to be a superstar.”
Momentum began to build. Aberg fell off the pace at the Rocket Mortgage but then finished T4 at the John Deere Classic the following week. That was when he took Donald up on some advice from Detroit.
“We were obviously…
Source : cbssports
