Ludvig Aberg explains historic Ryder Cup beatdown

Ludvig Aberg was a surprise captain’s pick for Team Europe at the 2023 Ryder Cup, but the 23-year-old quickly proved his worth, playing alongside Viktor Hovland in Friday morning’s foursomes session. The duo dispatched Americans Max Homa and Brian Harman 4 and 3, in what turned into an historic routing for the team as a whole. Team Europe went up 4-0 after the Friday morning foursomes session for the first time ever, paving the way for their ultimate 16.5 to 11.5 victory.

But Aberg and Hovland weren’t done making history. On Saturday morning, the duo faced American powerhouses Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler. On paper, it seemed like a match that should go the Americans’ way. But Hovland and Aberg issued an incredible beatdown for the ages, winning the match 9 and 7 — a margin-of-victory record.

On this week’s episode of Subpar, Aberg told hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz what is was like to notch such a lopsided victory.

“It was unreal, absolutely,” Aberg said, explaining that European team leadership had stressed the importance of getting off to a fast start. “Luckily we did, and then we kinda kept going. But it was a bit surreal. Obviously, me and Viktor, we played quite well, kinda keeping the foot on the gas and not letting them coming back was pretty cool.”

The Americans failed to win a single hole during the match, which ended on the 11th hole.

“I was just heading out to cover some groups, and you guys were driving in in the cart,” Stoltz said. “I was like, what the hell just happened?”

“It was nuts,” Aberg responded. “I don’t even know what to say. I still don’t quite understand what happened.”

“I think you’ll set some records in your day, but that one will never be broken,” Knost said.

For more Ryder Cup stories from Aberg, including his pick for Team Europe’s MVP, check out the full episode below.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.