Rising star Ludvig Aberg makes European Ryder Cup team after win
Aberg, 23, turned pro only in June after a standout college career at Texas Tech and has quickly made a name for himself. The Swede has missed only one cut in nine professional events, with two top-4 finishes plus a win this past weekend at the European Masters, where he reeled off four straight birdies late in his final round Sunday to pass Fitzpatrick. Aberg will be the first player to ever play in a Ryder Cup with zero major-championship appearances.
“Ludvig is a generational player, he’ll be around a long time and done amazing things,” Donald told Sky Sports on Monday. “If he didn’t make this one he’d be around for the next eight Ryder Cups, that’s how good I think he is.
“He’s such a cool cucumber, goes about his business so easily, has a great way about him and hits some of the most amazing shots. If you look at stats this year, he’d be the number one driver in the world ahead of McIlroy and [American Scottie] Scheffler — that’s pretty high standards.”
Since Aberg’s first professional tournament at the Canadian Open in June, he leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained: off the tee.
MacIntyre, Aberg, Højgaard and Straka will be making their Ryder Cup debuts. At 22, Højgaard will be the youngest player at this year’s competition. The native of Denmark tied for fifth at the European Masters and has finished no worse than 23rd in five of his past six tournaments.
Poland’s Adrian Meronk, who won the Italian Open at Marco Simone in May, was left off the team.
Donald’s other captain’s choices all have at least one Ryder Cup appearance. Fleetwood and Rose have seven of them and are a combined 17-10-4 in Ryder Cup matches. Lowry, who has won only one tournament since his 2019 British Open championship, went 1-2 in his Ryder Cup debut two years ago at Whistling Straits.
The European team members have 12 wins on the PGA Tour this season, two more than the American Ryder Cup participants. Seven Europeans return to the team from their 19-9 loss to the United States in 2021: McIlroy, Rahm, Fitzpatrick, Fleetwood, Hatton, Hovland and Lowry.
Europe hasn’t lost a Ryder Cup played on home soil since 1993, which also was the last time the United States won consecutive events.