Ludvig Aberg tipped to “go unbeaten” on history-making Ryder Cup debut 

The records keep tumbling for Ludvig Aberg.

Sweden’s new golfing superstar has just been named as one of Luke Donald’s six captain’s picks for the Ryder Cup and is now unquestionably the most inexperienced player to ever tee it up in the famous match.

Aberg only joined the pro ranks in June through the PGA Tour’s college qualifying system and is already a DP World Tour winner after his stunning Sunday at the Omega European Masters in Switzerland.

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The rise of the 23-year-old is such that Aberg may well have been included in Donald’s sextuple of wildcards even had he failed to chase down Matt Fitzpatrick with a stunning birdie surge at Crans-sur-Sierre on Sunday.

But his superb final round 64 in the Swiss Alps to claim victory has even turned the heads of those who, just days ago, had doubted whether the showdown just outside Rome had come too soon.

And Aberg is incredibly the first ever player to compete in his first Ryder Cup before his first major championship.

He has also made the quickest rise from the amateur stage to the match in history after eclipsing the record set by Europe’s all-time leading points scorer, Sergio Garcia, who turned pro after the Masters before his debut in 1999.

Eddie Pepperell, who finished in the top-ten at Crans, questioned what Aberg’s pick means for the European qualifying system, but has no doubt whatsoever about just how well he can perform at Marco Simone.

“With his game, around that course the way it’ll be set up, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go unbeaten,” Pepperell tweeted. “Then again I had Rahm at 10 majors by 2025 so take my predictions with a pinch of salt!”

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It will certainly be difficult to temper expectations for such a prodigious talent who delivered with Europe watching in the final Ryder Cup qualifying event in Switzerland.

And Donald certainly has high hopes for Aberg to become a mainstay of the European team.

“I really do have a lot of faith and belief in Ludvig,” he said after Monday’s announcement. “He is a generational player, he’s going to be around a long time and he’s going to do amazing things.

“If he wasn’t going to play this one he was going to play the next eight Ryder Cups, that’s how good I think he is.

“He proved it on Sunday, he’s a cool customer too. The statistics show he would be the number one driver this year, ahead of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.”

Aberg is the fourth European rookie who will be teeing it up in the contest. Nicolai Hojgaard, Sepp Straka and Robert MacIntyre will also be making their debuts later this month.

Team Europe 2023

Rory McIlroy (Q)
Jon Rahm (Q)
Viktor Hovland (Q)
Tyrrell Hatton (Q)
Matt Fitzpatrick (Q)
Robert MacIntyre (Q)
Tommy Fleetwood
Sepp Straka
Justin Rose
Shane Lowry
Nicolai Hojgaard
Ludvig Aberg

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.