Newly turned professional Ludvig Aberg will make his Ryder Cup bow for Europe after being named in captain Luke Donald’s six wildcard picks on Monday.
The 23-year-old, who only turned professional in June, won the European Masters in Switzerland on Sunday.
“I have faith in Ludvig, I think he’ll be a generational player,” said Donald.
Tommy Fleetwood, Sepp Straka, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry and Nicolai Hojgaard have also been picked for the 12-man team to face the United States in Rome.
They join Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick and Robert MacIntyre who claimed the six automatic qualification spots for the biennial match, taking place at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club from 29 September-1 October.
Sweden’s Aberg makes the quickest transition from the amateur rank to the Ryder Cup in the contest’s history.
“He’s going to be around a long time and do amazing things,” Donald added.
“If he wasn’t going to play this one, he was going to play the next eight. That’s how good I think he is.
“He hits some of the most amazing shots. If you look at his statistics this year he would be the number one driver in the world ahead of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler and those are pretty high standards for someone just coming out of college.
“We obviously knew what he was doing in the college scene. You look at what he did in those four years and the only comparable players really were Viktor Hovland and Jon Rahm. He is that good. I played with him in Detroit and was blown away by his game.”
Poland’s Adrian Meronk, 30, has not been selected, despite winning the Italian Open on the Ryder Cup course in May and sitting third in the DP World Tour rankings.
More to follow.
