Why LIV Golf Played A Part In Ludvig Aberg’s Rapid Rise To Ryder Cup Stardom

In May of this year Ludvig Aberg became the first player to earn a PGA Tour membership through the Tour’s University programme. The Swede finished No. 1 on the rankings which gave him a Tour card for the rest of the 2023 season as well as one for next year. 

After a decorated amateur career which saw him win a record eight times and back-to-back Ben Hogan Awards, given to the best collegiate player, he became the first player since Jon Rahm to achieve such a feat.

He turned pro in June and this week plays in the same Ryder Cup team as Rahm. And the Swede gave special mention to the university programme for his rapid progress. 

“I don’t think without the PGA Tour I would be here. For me I owe a lot to the PGA Tour Youth Programme and what they have done and what they are continuing to do. They are continuing to develop the programme and I know it’s going to make college golf better. It’s going to make amateur golf better and eventually it’s going to make pro golf better, too. It’s very cool, and I’m lucky to be the first guy to take advantage of this,” explained the 23-year-old.

In the past 18 months we have seen the likes of the top college talent like Eugenio Chacarra, James Piot and David Puig switch to the LIV Golf League which saw the University programme brought in and now sees Aberg on the biggest stage having not even played in a Major yet.

“If someone would have told me a couple months ago that I would be here playing a Ryder Cup, I probably wouldn’t believe them. But I would believe them if I said that I could do it, probably yeah. But it’s really cool the way that these last couple of months has panned out for me. It’s been quite intense and you know, I’m trying to embrace it. I try to enjoy it.”

Aberg wasn’t born the last time the Americans won on European soil and his favourite memory was from Medinah in 2012 where his captain Luke Donald played a huge part in the famous comeback.

“I feel like the one that sticks out in my memory is the 2012. I’ve gotten to know Peter Hanson quite well and Nicolas (Colsaerts) over there, they have been telling me stories about that day in Medinah, just to understand how much it means to them and how much it means to the whole European side has been pretty cool. 

"Hopefully we’ll be able to do something similar this week and hopefully we’ll be able to inspire other kids growing up and other people coming after us. It’s a really cool environment to be in. Like we said before, we are trying to write our own chapter.”

Aberg’s chapter began in glorious fashion in the Friday foursomes as he and a brilliant Viktor Hovland beat Max Homa and Brian Harman 4&3.