Who's Ludvig Aberg? The powerful 24-year-old Swede might be the next young force at Valhalla

David Schuh
David Schuh
Digital Director

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May 15, 2024
May 15, 2024 Updated May 20, 2024

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The last two times the PGA Championship came to Louisville, a young crop of players — bigger, stronger and more headstrong than many before it — took Valhalla Golf Club by storm.

Tiger Woods, 25, won maybe the most dramatic major championship of his career in 2000, using brute force and a force of will to win his third-straight major title.

Rory McIlroy, also 25, conjured similar feelings in 2014, winning his second-straight major championship at Valhalla in what remains the most illustrious summer of his career. The big-driving, smooth-walking Northern Irishman ran down a packed leaderboard on the back nine, making everyone feel he'd run down the records books too.

Who is that person in 2024? It might be Ludvig Aberg, who most casual golf fans have never heard of.

The 24-year-old Swede is a statuesque 6 foot, 3 inches tall with a swing that combines a stunning combination of reckless abandon and measured control. He wastes no time over the ball, a young player with little doubt what he can do when competing against the world's best.

"I love playing tough golf courses," Aberg told reporters Wednesday at Valhalla. "I think it's fun, and, obviously, a major tournament is a big test."

Aberg made his major championship debut last month at The Masters, tying for second. For someone with so little experience at a course that all but weeds out anyone without a plethora of it, the golf world took notice.

"Augusta is such a special place, and you can just feel that just walking into the grounds," Aberg said. "Felt like I really enjoyed it. I feel like a big thing for me when I'm playing golf is try to enjoy it and try to have fun. Once I'm not having fun, I think that's when it goes downhill. I think that's how I try to treat every tournament but I think playing in contention at Augusta makes that a little bit easier."

That ease is palpable when talking to and watching Aberg. There's a "you don't know what you don't know" type of vibe coming from him, a sense of calm that just might work wonders around Valhalla.

Aberg's powerful drives and towering irons shots are tailor made for Valhalla's length, wide fairways and small greens. He could overpower the course in the way Woods and McIlroy did, the next man to assume golf's crown at Valhalla on the way to greater things.

"This week is my first PGA Championship and only my second major," he said Wednesday. "I'm feeling all these things that first-timers do and it's the same thing for me. So I try to focus on the golf. At the end of the day, this is what I've been wanting to do since I was a little boy, and I love doing it."