Battle-tested Aberg ready to lead Europe's Ryder Cup charge

FARMINGDALE, New York :Sweden's Ludvig Aberg is feeling a greater sense of belonging ahead of his second Ryder Cup appearance this week, two years after a debut so spectacular it left world number one Scottie Scheffler in tears and rewrote the record books.

Aberg made history in 2023 as the first player to compete in a Ryder Cup before appearing in a major championship, but it was his performance alongside Viktor Hovland that truly announced his arrival on golf's biggest stage.

The European duo's 9&7 foursomes victory over Americans Scheffler and Brooks Koepka in Rome marked the largest margin of victory for an 18-hole match in Ryder Cup history, a result so emphatic it reduced the world's best player to tears.

"It's not something I think about," world number 16 Aberg told reporters on Wednesday at Bethpage Black.

"Obviously that day, it was somewhat of a freak result and something that we didn't quite expect. But it was a cool experience that me and Viktor had."

For Aberg, one of Luke Donald's captain's picks for the 2023 Ryder Cup less than four months into his professional career, the significance of the foursomes win went far beyond the record books.

The victory showed he belonged among golf's elite, having never even met his high-profile opponents before.

"The biggest thing that I take away from those couple days, and maybe especially that morning, was just the validation for myself, that I'm able to do that," said Aberg.

"Because obviously before I played in Rome, I hadn't even met those guys. I had never shaken their hands. I had never had a conversation with them."

ABERG NOW A KNOWN QUANTITY

Now Aberg returns to the biennial matchplay competition far from the unknown quantity he was two years ago and looking to help Europe