09 October 2023 , 11:59
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European Ryder Cup star Ludvig Aberg was denied his first PGA Tour win in dramatic fashion, after Luke List prevailed at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Aberg and List were part of a five-way playoff at the FedEx Cup fall event, alongside Henrik Norlander, Ben Griffin and Scott Stallings. All five players finished at 18-under-par across their four rounds, to ensure a 73rd hole of the week was needed to crown the winner.
On the extra hole, both Norlander and Stallings failed to hit the green in two after leaving their approach shots short. Griffin, Aberg and List meanwhile all found the putting surface, and it was the latter who would go on to roll in a remarkable putt.
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From 45 feet, List hit a superb putt across the the green from right to left, before seeing it drop into the hole, piling the pressure on his opponents. Aberg and co were unable to follow the American in, ensuring it was List who came away with his second PGA Tour win.
Discussing his tournament-winning putt, List said: "Just to have the opportunity to get in a playoff, I felt like, ‘Wow, OK, this is a gift'. Then my mindset just switched into, ‘OK, let’s try to make a birdie any way I could.’ Didn’t hit the best (approach) shot but I told my caddie, ‘I’m making this,’ and somehow rolled it in.”
Whilst it may have been a missed opportunity for Aberg, his impressive showing in Mississippi continues his remarkable rise. The Swede only opted to turn professional in June but since then has not looked back, breaking onto the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and most impressively the European Ryder Cup team.
In a bid to make Luke Donald's team last month, the youngster headed to Europe where he won his maiden event as a pro at the Omega European Masters, just 24 hours before his call-up to Team Europe. Just four weeks later Aberg was a Ryder Cup winner in Rome, winning two points on debut including a record-breaking 9&7 win alongside Viktor Hovland against Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka in the Saturday foursomes.
Just days after Aberg was back in PGA Tour action, and despite missing out on his maiden win, he is more than happy with where his game is just four months into his professional career. " I feel like I'm playing well," Aberg said after his tied-second finish.
"I'm swinging it nice. For me to kind of come over here to play after Rome was something that I wanted to do, and obviously I think the round on Thursday kind of set the pace a little bit. It was nice to see a good score coming in, and then I just kept going. Luckily today I found myself quite close to the lead coming down the stretch."