Ludvig Aberg has not lived up to the hype early in his young career.
The 26-year-old Swedish superstar was touted as the next generational talent in the sport just three years ago. He was selected to play in the Ryder Cup by Luke Donald before he ever played a major championship, which was the first time that had ever happened.
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He then finished second at The Masters in his first-ever major. He’d already won a PGA Tour event, and it seemed that the sky was the limit for Aberg. Little did we know that he’d win just once more on the PGA Tour over the next two seasons.
This week at TPC Sawgrass, Aberg looked certain to claim the biggest victory of his career with a Players Championship title. Instead, he collapsed on the back nine, and the win was taken by Cameron Young.
This is becoming a concerning trend for Aberg, as he follows in the footsteps of another player who was once dubbed the next Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler.
Photo by Jorge Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Why Ludvig Aberg is following in the footsteps of Rickie Fowler
After his incredible amateur career, the golfing world expected Fowler to take the professional game by storm.
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He was the number one-ranked amateur in the world for 36 consecutive weeks between 2007 and 2008, and he was the first freshman to ever win the Ben Hogan Award, given to the best college player in the United States.
He played on two winning U.S. Walker Cup teams, posting a nearly flawless record (7-1-0), and he was labelled the next big thing in golf when he turned professional in 2009.
Unfortunately, Fowler wasn’t able to rise to these lofty expectations. It took him three years to win his first event as a pro, and instead of stacking the majors, he became the only player to finish in the top five at all four majors in the same year without ever winning one.
Fowler has six PGA Tour wins and zero major wins in his career, a solid trophy cabinet, but not one that matches his pedigree as an amateur.
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Aberg, the only other player to win the Ben Hogan Award twice, has already avoided the winless trap of Fowler, having picked up his first PGA Tour victory almost immediately, but judging by his near misses so far in his career, he’s trending in a similar direction to Fowler.
This feels like a make-or-break year for the young Swede.
How likely Ludvig Aberg was to win The Players
We have seen a series of collapses from the lead so far this PGA Tour season. Shane Lowry blew a three-shot lead in the final three holes of the Cognizant Classic, and Daniel Berger gave up his lead to Akshay Bhatia at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
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Even Jacob Bridgeman almost threw away a sizeable advantage to Rory McIlroy at the Genesis Invitational, hanging on by just one shot.
Unfortunately for Aberg, he fell into the same trap on the back nine of The Players. Standing on the 11th fairway at TPC Sawgrass, he had a 61.4% win probability. He then hit it in the water twice to end any hopes of a win.
But this collapse pales in comparison to Berger and Lowry. Berger had a 86.7% win probability standing on the 16th tee on Sunday at Bay Hill before losing to Bhatia, and Lowry had a 96.7% win probability standing on the 16th tee on Sunday at Cognizant.
Both lost their leads in extraordinary fashion, which somewhat spares Aberg’s blushes. It just goes to show that no lead is safe on the PGA Tour.
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