Colin Montgomerie makes bold Ludvig Aberg prediction

Ludvig Aberg has had quite the start to his professional career. But you don’t need us to tell you that.

There is a danger that we get swept away in the hype every time a talented young player rises through the ranks and puts themselves in the global spotlight for what they’re doing on the golf course.

But Colin Montgomerie is happy to come right out and say it.

“Oh, yes, this guy’s got majors in him,” Montgomerie told bunkered. “I know it’s a very difficult thing to say, ‘Oh, he’ll win majors.’ But he will win.

“This guy will, OK?”

If already having wins on the PGA and DP World Tours isn’t enough, or a history-making winning start to Ryder Cup life, Aberg’s major career to date includes a runner-up finish to Scottie Scheffler at the Masters and a tie for 11th at the 124th US Open having carried a one-shot lead through 36 holes at Pinehurst.

• 29 random thoughts and takeaways from the US Open

• Watch Rory McIlroy scarper after US Open heartbreak

• Tiger Woods raises doubts over major championship future after US Open MC

And the Scottish legend, who had three second-place finishes at the US Open, has absolutely no doubt Aberg can go one better – maybe even as early as Sunday evening.

“To finish second at the Masters by three shots – as in he was three shots ahead of third – in his first major is special,” Montgomerie continued.

“He’s been a pro for five minutes! Amazing, really. This guy has everything.

“He seems to have a hell of a head on him too. After that double bogey at 11 at the Masters in the last round, to come off that green smiling, and ready for the most important shot of his life on the 12th hole at Augusta, and hit the green and make three? That shows something. That really shows something.

“He’s doubled the 11th, thrown away his chances of winning the event, really, and yet he came off the green tipping his hat to the crowd and smiling.

“I thought, ‘This guy’s got something here. This is this is different.’ It wouldn’t surprise anybody. That’s the big thing. It wouldn’t surprise a soul if he went and won this, and actually won it well.

“I was out at the Ryder Cup, and, with all respect to every one of them, there’s two guys on that Ryder Cup team that I could watch hit balls on a range all day: Rory McIlroy and Aberg.

“He’s that good.”

Montgomerie, who was talking to bunkered as part of a Mercedes Benz patrons day ahead of The Open, said if not at Pinehurst then put Aberg down for Royal Troon.

“It’s funny,” Montgomerie, a lifetime member of the Ayrshire course, said. “We could have two Swedes win The Open here in a row.”

And, Montgomerie believes, he’s not the only person who would put his neck on the line when it comes to Aberg.

“If you went around the whole range and asked the 155 other competitors who would be the next rookie winner of a major,” he explained, “in excess of 100 players would say his name. Which is incredible.”

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor