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When Ludvig Åberg won the prestigious Jones Cup Invitational earlier this month in Sea Island, Georgia, he offered no window into what was happening internally.
Through five costly bogeys and five much-needed birdies at mentally taxing Ocean Forest Golf Club, the tall Swede with blue eyes and brown hair let everyone else grimace at the wind or smack their putter in disgust. Facing a potential four-man playoff that would have featured the No. 2 amateur in the world, American Davis Thompson, Åberg hit his best drive of the day at the finishing par-4 18th and then an approach to 6 feet. Like a thief without a conscience he took little time over his putt – Åberg will never be mistaken for Jason Day in his pace – and calmly rolled it in the hole for a winning birdie.
Other than the infectious smile he displayed, you would have a hard time deciphering between the biggest moment of Åberg’s young golf career or a practice round.
He likes it that way.
“In a bigger group, I tend to stay in the background,” Åberg said, while mentioning that the recent barrage of interview requests he’s received will be good practice for his eventual pro career. “I’m not the one who is loud and all over the place. I’m usually in the back doing my work. Guys know I am loyal and reliable, so they can trust me.”
Despite his aversion to attention, Åberg (now ranked No. 10 in the world) finds himself receiving an onslaught of comparisons to fellow Scandinavian, Norway’s Viktor Hovland – two ballstriking machines with chipping struggles and impossible-not-to-like dispositions. He is only in his sophomore year at Texas Tech University, but Åberg is eight months from turning 22 years old and already has garnered a wealth of experience in competing against both amateurs and professionals.
On the amateur side, he reached the round of 16 at both the U.S. Amateur and the Amateur Championship in 2019 to cap a junior career that also included winning the Fairhaven Trophy and a stroke-play title at the European Boys Team Championship in Spain. In college, he has won the Sun Bowl All-American Classic and went 4-0 for the International team in December’s Palmer Cup.
“I have more to give and still have to prove to myself I can play under pressure. I want to get my consistency up a little more.”
Ludvig Åberg
Those accomplishments, impressive as they are, may not match what he did this past summer at home in Sweden where he won Robert Karlsson’s Nordic Golf League event and followed with another triumph at the Barsebäck Resort Masters. At Karlsson’s event, Åberg rallied with a 3-under 69 to force a playoff and then poured home a 20-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole.
To go along with his penchant for dramatic winning shots, Åberg also is becoming known for shaking off poor starts. He fell to 4 over through his first 11 holes at the Jones Cup and went 6 under in the remaining 43 holes to claim victory in trying conditions.
“I’ve seen it several times where he didn’t get off to a good start and I come up to him to see if he’s OK and he just says, ‘Oh, it’s fine, I have plenty of holes,’ ” Texas Tech head coach Greg Sands said. “When we were recruiting him, he played at a University of Washington event and made a triple bogey on the first hole. I said to my assistant coach it will be interesting to see how it turns out. Of course he did the same thing he always does. When the last nine holes of the tournament came around, he was right there with a chance to win.”
Åberg’s first sports love was not golf. His father, Johan, had to bargain with his son to get him out to the course in their hometown of Eslöv, about an hour’s drive from Copenhagen, trading his appearance for an ice cream cone. What Åberg really gravitated to was football, where he captained a travel squad as a midfielder up to age 14. He hadn’t played competitive golf until he quit football in favor of a sport where he had more control over the outcome. His mother, Mia, also favored golf for her son from an injury perspective given the many ways a footballer can get hurt.
Once he got to high school, Åberg’s obvious golf talent took over. He grew up 30 minutes from where Henrik Stenson played as a teenager, Barsebäck, a course Åberg has played regularly.
“I would go to the putting green and pretend I’m Henrik trying to win a major,” he said.
Åberg’s high school in Helsingborg, Sweden, is known for producing great players. He graduated in the same class as Linn Grant, now the world No. 2 women’s amateur and a sophomore at Arizona State University. Grant is one of three Swedes ranked within the top eight of the world in the women’s world rankings, and Åberg is one of two Swedes on the men’s side who are within the top 12 in the world. Vincent Norrman of Florida State University is the other.
A part of Åberg’s high school studies included learning golf ball flight laws, the physics that occur at impact and other intricacies of the game. His current swing coach didn’t work out of a local club, but rather was the pro at the high school itself.
With a short season, Swedes usually are hard workers indoors, tinkering away in hitting bays and figuring creative ways to enhance their mental game. He credits a large part of his development to the country’s national team, which provided a structure and put a priority on work ethic.
“There was always somebody you could call to go practice with,” Åberg said. “The morale around working on your game is very high.”
His college decision came down to Texas Tech and Arizona State, but the strong Swedish pipeline developed by the Red Raiders convinced Åberg to head to the plains of west Texas. Åberg isn’t even the highest-ranked Texas Tech player given Scotland’s Sandy Scott is ahead of him at No. 6 in the world. The competition is a motivating factor for him.
“I feel like I haven’t performed as well as I would like to in team tournaments,” Åberg said. “I have more to give and still have to prove to myself I can play under pressure. I want to get my consistency up a little more.”
With the success of Norway’s Hovland, Finland’s Sami Välimäki and other young Nordic players who have enjoyed fruitful beginnings to their career, Åberg is hopeful he can make that next step as well.
But as with his golf game, Åberg tends to view his life from 30,000 feet above the ground.
“I’m going to have two more years of school so I can continue to develop as a human being,” Åberg said. “But seeing others who have gone before me, I know that next step is going to be big but not that big.”
He is not eligible for Walker Cup play, but the seeds of a future Ryder Cup player could be there.
When asked to compare Åberg to current professionals, Sands has some lofty praise.
“To me he kind of looks like Adam Scott with how tall he is and that smooth swing that can reach another gear when he wants to,” Sands said. “And then on the mental side he is kind of like an Ernie (Els) or a Retief (Goosen) where it just seems like nothing bothers him.”
He’s been hiding in the background, but it’s likely his play won’t allow that to continue.
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