Aberg wins PGA Tour card, two more national awards
For anyone who assumed Ludvig Aberg had accomplished almost everything a player can accomplish in college golf, well, then came Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday, the Texas Tech standout earned a PGA Tour card, giving him full status beginning immediately through the end of the 2024 season.
On Tuesday, he was named the winner of the Fred Haskins Award and was announced as the NCAA Division I recipient of the Jack Nicklaus Award. That makes a three-trophy sweep of men's college golf player of the year awards for Aberg, who last week won the Ben Hogan Award for the second year in a row.
The 23-year-old Swede received his PGA Tour card at the end of the 72-hole stroke play portion of the NCAA championship tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona. That's a new reward for finishing No. 1 on the end-of-season points list of PGA Tour University, a program established in 2020.
Aberg already has played in pro tournaments and made cuts this year at the Dubai Desert Classic and the Valspar Championship, but is expected to debut as a PGA Tour member next week at the RBC Canadian Open in Toronto.
He said earlier this month he plans to move to the Tallahassee, Florida area and live for the time being with former Florida State player Vincent Norrman, a fellow Swede who recently posted top-10 finishes at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and the Byron Nelson.
Tech coach Greg Sands said Aberg had significant pressure on and off the course this season. He had the stress of maintaining his No. 1 ranking on PGA Tour U to get the card, and more and more agents and sponsors lining up for the time he turned pro.
"I do feel like at a few points it was a little bit overwhelming," Aberg said, "because there is a lot of new nuances to it and a lot of new experiences that I haven't had before.
"Naturally, you're going to be a little bit overwhelmed, but also I try to view it as, it's just a part of the game, because if you look at the Rorys (McIlroy) and the D.J.s (Dustin Johnson) and the Scotties (Scheffler), that's what they do and it's a part of the sport. It's not only to go out and play golf, but you should be able to handle everything around it too."
Aberg won four times this school year, including a record-setting performance at the Big 12 tournament followed by a victory at the NCAA Norman Regional. Monday at Grayhawk Golf Club was the only time he finished outside the top 10 all year, ending up 4 over par and tied for 29th. The Red Raiders were 16th in a 30-team field.
More: The climb to the top: College golf's two-time player of year eyes future on PGA Tour
Sands and Aberg's teammates enjoyed the ride.
"There's a lot of things that happened during the year," Sands said, "and you're like, 'Man, this is happening because of Ludvig. Thanks, Ludvig. Thanks, Ludvig.' Everything that he's touched, whether it's winning (national awards), the exposure that our program gets because he's number one in PGA Tour U.
"The recruits, they don't look at our program like, 'I wonder if I could be the best player?' They know that it's happened here. All that stuff really adds up and puts yourself in a situation where you can recruit better, you can tell your story better.
"He's really afforded us the opportunity that you couldn't really dream up. The exposure's just priceless."
The Haskins Award on the Haskins Foundation website says it "honors the year's outstanding college golfer and the memory of Fred Haskins, an obscure club pro that spent his life nurturing and mentoring amateur golfers." College golfers, coaches and golf media vote on it.
The Jack Nicklaus Award honors a national player of the year in each of the three divisions of the NCAA, plus the NAIA and the NJCAA.
The only other players to win the Hogan, Haskins and Nicklaus awards are Hunter Mahan (Oklahoma State, 2003), Bill Haas (Wake Forest, 2004), Ryan Moore (Nevada-Las Vegas, 2005), Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, 2014), Sahith Theegala (Pepperdine, 2020) and John Pak (Florida State, 2021).
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Ludvig Aberg wins PGA Tour card, two more college golf national awards
