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SAN DIEGO (AP) — Jon Rahm saw this coming, even if he might not have known the player — Ludvig Aberg — or how quickly the college kid would make his mark.
Toward the end of LIV Golf’s inaugural season in October 2022, Rahm was still bullish about the PGA Tour and worried about the tour missing out on a great opportunity. A fellow Spaniard, Eugenio Chacarra, had gone from Oklahoma State to take the guaranteed Saudi riches.
Rahm wondered who was next.
“My advice to the PGA Tour? Start looking at college players and offer them more than you do now,” Rahm said then. “Every other major sport has a direct path to the major leagues from college except golf.”
Changes to PGA Tour University already were in the works, and a month later the No. 1 senior went from access to the minor leagues (Korn Ferry Tour) to a full card on the PGA Tour. Aberg, a senior at Texas Tech, became the first player to take that direct path.
Four months later, he went 2-2 in the Ryder Cup and celebrated a European victory. Within six months, his name was in the PGA Tour record book by matching the lowest 72-hole score.
Did that keep Aberg from joining LIV? No.
Turns out a LIV representative already had tried to lure him away in the spring of 2022. Aberg described it to STV Sport in Sweden as life-changing money. He also saw red flags. Aberg prefers to keep life simple. His focus was the PGA Tour and European tour.
And he is doing quite well at the moment. He already has earned just short of $18.5 million in 38 tournaments since he left Texas Tech.
The latest example was his victory Sunday in the Genesis Invitational at tough Torrey Pines when he rallied from a three-shot deficit on the back nine with an array of big moments with his driver, two fairway metals, his putter and a 9-iron, arguably the best shot of the bunch.
The 14th hole was the second of three straight birdies that allowed him to catch Maverick McNealy. The pin was back right, tempting to attack with a pitching wedge, trouble for anything long. Aberg had been working on flighting his shots, and this was one of those “show me what you’ve got” moments.
“I had a pitching wedge number, but I hit a 9-iron just to sort of get the spin down,” he said. “But it’s also a dangerous shot because if you tug it a little bit, it goes over and down in the hazard. It was one of them that I’ve gotten better at, that flighted iron shot. A couple years ago I couldn’t do that.
“It was cool to pull that off when I needed to and give myself a chance to make a birdie.”
The simplicity with which the 25-year-old plays is illustrated by his goal along the back nine after McNealy finished. “All I tried to do once I saw that he posted 11 (under) was just to get to 12, really,” he said.
And that he did with a big drive down the middle, a 7-wood that would safely clear the water and two putts, the last one from 7 feet on the same line — certainly not the same conditions or circumstances — as the 12-footer Tiger Woods famously made to force a U.S. Open playoff.
It was his biggest win, yes, but mainly because he only has two others. His first was the European Masters in Switzerland in 2023, the other at Sea Island at the end of that year when he shot 61-61 on the weekend to win the RSM Classic.
More would be certain to follow, and more are required before he can be considered a serious threat to Scottie Scheffler, who didn’t win until his third full season on the PGA Tour and now that’s all he seems to do.
Aberg was bummed not to win last year — he had three runner-up finishes, including the Masters, his major championship debut — and 14 months between wins felt like a lifetime. Jordan Spieth had a lightning start to his career in 2013 when he went from no status to a spot on the Presidents Cup team. He failed to win on tour the following year, and then 2015 worked out pretty well for him.
There is a lot to like about Aberg, from the power and efficiency of his swing to how quickly he plays to the respect and politeness with which he goes through life.
“I was impressed as I’ve ever been watching anybody … more for his demeanor and his composure than his game,” Lucas Glover said, recalling the first time he played with Aberg. “To me, that’s the most impressive about him is the way he does it the right way, humbly, and a lot like Scottie. It’s impressive to watch somebody that young with that much game and that much success already and still do it with his humility and grace.”
If anything, Aberg set a high bar for the college kids coming behind him.
Michael Thorbjornsen of Stanford was the next player to be No. 1 in PGA Tour University and is starting his first full year. Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt is still in school but already has a card locked up through the “accelerated” program for underclassmen. Florida State junior Luke Clanton already has two runner-up finishes and is on the verge of a card.
Like anyone else, college success doesn’t guarantee anything in golf. PGA Tour University simply gives top players a head start. Aberg ran with it. He seems to do everything fast.
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