Ludvig Aberg calm and collected ahead of first Open experience

Ludvig Aberg on the 1st hole during day four of the Genesis Scottish Open 2024 at The Renaissance Club. Picture: Malcolm Mackenzie/PA Wire.

You think you’ve absorbed the sheer chutzpah of Ludvig Aberg’s rise. The Ryder Cup heroics, the tour wins, the impossible maturity the Swede displays on and off the course. Then he comes to Royal Troon and you realise this will be his first Open Championship.

“I’ve never even been to one,” he said, matter-of-factly.

Aberg is as smooth with a microphone as he is with a golf club. Is this his favourite major given he is, after all, a European? Well, what else was he going to say but yes? He’s excited, everything is very cool and he’s ready to play some good golf.

Smooth.

The 24-year old is number four in the world rankings. That was Rory McIlroy the last time this tournament came to this corner of Ayrshire in 2016. He’s in the top four or five of listed favourites and would anyone be surprised if he lived up to those odds?

It’s a ludicrously swift rise, even if his record as an amateur suggested that he was ready to hit the ground running after turning pro 13 months ago, and he shows absolutely no sense of a man burdened by the expectation this brings.

“I can't really speak for other people. I can only speak for myself. I'm always going to have high expectations because I know what I can do and I know my abilities. I guess it's up to other people to say and think what they want. That's not really my place to say anything.” Aberg has picked a fitting course to start his Open story.

It was at Royal Troon eight years ago where his countryman Henrik Stenson came out best in a duel with Phil Mickelson and Aberg restated his belief here, only half tongue-in-cheek, that Sweden should have declared July 17th to be a national holiday because of it.

Stenson was the first Scandinavian to win a major, he rose to number two in the world rankings on the back of some other prestigious tour wins, and yet the expectation is that Aberg has the ability to go much further than all that again.

Second in this year’s Masters, he was tied for 12th at the US Open but missed the cut at the US PGA, his first such experience since turning pro although he will tee off on Thursday having acknowledged some lingering issues with his driving.

Those issues contributed to a final round fade-out at the Genesis Scottish Open on Sunday, his three-over par round costing him any shot at the title eventually won by Robert McIntyre and feeding a minor, budding narrative with it.

His Masters bid floundered when finding the water at Augusta’s 11th on the last day. He went 73-73 at Pinehurst’s par-70 course number two over the weekend having put himself in contention with his two opening rounds. So naturally people jump to conclusions.

He can't close the deal.

It’s a tiny sample size and, as theories go, it is compromised by that and by the emphasis that ignores the incredible work done in the first place. He brushed it off with a polite, almost indifferent, nonchalance and by repeating that these things are always about cause and effect.

Aberg's troubles coming down the stretch at the Scottish Open were directly related to his struggles off the tee. He’s working on that. It's that simple. And as for the US Open and Masters experiences, well, these are invaluable lessons being learned at such an early stage.

“Absolutely. I've learned a lot that I like being in that situation. I think that's the main thing. I try not to shy away from it. In football you talk a lot about wanting the ball, and that's what I try to tell myself. That's what I want to do. I enjoy the pressure.

“That's what you want. That's why you play and practice all these hours. To be in that situation is just cool. It's fun to see the people around enjoying, watching golf, and then enjoying watching you play. Ultimately that's why you play golf.”