Ludvig Aberg Leads BMW Championship Heading Into Final Round

Ludvig Aberg will have many firsts in his career and Saturday at the BMW Championship, the young Swede notched another one, sitting on top of the leaderboard with the 54-hole leader.

Poised at 16-under par after a 6-under 66 after the third round, the 23-year-old from Eslöv was clearly the class of a formidable field that includes four of the top 10 in the world and all 12 of the European Ryder Cup team.

Needless to say, Aberg is playing and beating a field of the world’s best in just his 10th professional start.

“I think both yes and no,” Was Aberg’s answer to if he could believe what he was doing. “I think if you asked me if I could do it, I'd probably say yes. But to do it in this kind of fashion is pretty cool.”

What fashion is he talking about?

Is it that he made five birdies and an eagle against only one dropped shot after a poor drive?

Or is it that he’s continually gotten better and better over Wentworth’s West course, making fewer mistakes while continuing to make birdies at a crazy clip of 6.67 birdies per round against two double bogeys and two bogeys, some of which came from lack of knowledge of the course?

Or is it that every swing looks flawless and his demeanor, no matter the outcome, is jovial? And of course don’t forget he is riding a high from his performance in Switzerland two weeks ago when he caught and passed Matt Fitzpatrick with a flurry of four birdies over the last five holes to seal his first professional win in the final round.

“I think just playing these events and having all these experiences for the first time, it's been pretty cool,” Aberg said. “I wouldn't necessarily say there's been any surprises, but, you know, all I try to do is prepare for each tournament, the best I can to do some good practice and, and then once I'm on the golf course, it's kind of nice to just go out and play and have fun.”

Aberg started this week joining 11 other players he barely knew on a trip to Rome for a pre-Ryder Cup bonding session and then returns to the DP World Tour and is paired with Viktor Hovland and Rory McIlroy.

For most rookies that would be enough, but for Aberg it seems to be more part of a maturation process where he takes one experience, learns from it, and then moves to the next one.

That next one will be trying to win his second consecutive DP World Tour title, with Ryder Cup teammates Tommy Fleetwood (-14), Jon Rahm (-12) and Tyrrell Hatton (-11) on his heels.

Add in the fact that he would be winning the DP World Tour flagship event just a little more than three months after he turned pro, gives you a sense of how monumental Sunday could be in the life of Aberg.

“I think if you tell yourself it is, I think it is,” Aberg said of leading versus chasing. “Everyone who is around the lead is trying to win a golf tournament, even the leader is trying to win a golf tournament too. But I think once you get in a little bit of a conservative mode that's when you are going to struggle. So I think you’ve got to keep the foot on the pedal and try to make birdies even though you know you're leading the golf tournament.”