– It hasn’t even been two years since Ludvig Aberg turned professional, but in reality, he has spent more than half of that time within the world top ten. After his victory yesterday at the Genesis Invitational, he rises again to Number 4, a position he had already held and which is currently his peak. He is the Pau Gasol of golf: producing good numbers almost without realising it. He turned professional in June 2023 and was already in the world top ten by March 2024: not even nine full months had passed.
– Let’s make some odious comparisons. Tiger Woods turned professional in August 1996 and entered the world top ten for the first time in April 1997, after winning the Masters. Not even eight months had passed. Jon Rahm turned professional in June 2016 and reached the world top ten for the first time eleven months later, in May 2017. And let’s continue…
Rory McIlroy turned professional in September 2007 and didn’t reach the world top ten until the last week of 2009, well over two years later. And Sergio García, another example of a great breakthrough in the professional world, like Aberg and Rory, turned professional in April 1999 and didn’t touch the world top ten until May 2001, so a little over two years had passed. Let’s finish with Jordan Spieth, another example of a great breakthrough in the professional world: he turned professional at the start of 2013 and reached the world top ten for the first time in April 2014, a little over a year later.
So there you have it. At least in this regard, the Nordic player operates at levels that truly give much to think about. It’s not just about reaching that top ten, it’s about staying there. That said, of all those mentioned, only Sergio did not manage to reach World Number One. Will Aberg be able to go that far? It doesn’t seem like the best time to achieve it, with someone like Scheffler firmly on the throne, but it’s not hard to imagine Ludvig achieving such a feat, just like that, as if it were nothing.
– The Swede said yesterday, with the trophy in his hands, that the entire year 2024 without victories felt like an eternity. And that nothing seems more exciting in life than the feeling of playing the final holes of a tournament with the chance to win it. His angelic appearance is deceiving, but it seems he does have a competitive beast inside. It will be a matter of seeing how he nurtures it, because it is undeniable that, given his player profile, reliable like few others, he is destined to make history in Swedish, European, and world golf.
– Sunday’s playing conditions were by far the best of the week. A bit more temperature and a bit less wind. And soon the guys got down to business: in the final round, 22 cards of under seventy strokes were signed, almost as many as had been signed in total over the previous three rounds (26). However, it’s not all about the conditions; it also happens that these players adapt and learn very quickly. It is very complicated (and even inadvisable), for example, to regularly train or work on the game from rough like the one present this week at the South course of Torrey Pines, so in these situations, somehow, you have to adapt on the fly, or simply understand that you will need to adjust the game enough to… go more for the fairway.
