Ludvig Aberg Recovered from Knee Surgery; Buys House in Ponte Vedra
Star Swedish player Ludvig Aberg won the Davis Love III-hosted RSM Classic last year in just his 11th PGA Tour event as a pro. Luck? Doubtful. He had already won the Omega European Masters in just his second professional start on the DP World Tour. In other words, the guy has game.
Unfortunately, he also got a knee problem last spring and wasn’t able to play up to his potential the last half of the season.
“I felt early in the year -- this must have been somewhere around April, May, something like that -- it started to act up a little bit. I didn't really know what it was,” he explained.
After seeing several doctors, it was determined that Ludvig Aberg had a meniscus issue.
“I knew that I needed to have surgery at some point, but I also felt like I could last throughout the season,” he added.
While he said it didn’t affect playing golf, it did hurt when he squatted to read putts,
“I couldn't read the putts the way I wanted to,” he noted. “It got swollen, so it shut down the quad and then my quad ultimately got a little bit weaker.”
So, his swing may have been affected, but not so much that he couldn’t play. He finished the 2023 season at the Tour Championship, an outstanding showing for his first full year on the PGA Tour.
Then, the following week, he had the surgery. It was done in New York City where he also rehabbed for two weeks. He was able to walk, and so he and his girlfriend did tourist things.
Then they flew to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where he bought a house so that he would have a home base in the U.S. It was the first time he was away from golf for that length of time since his senior year in college.
“It was quite nice to kind of reflect a little bit,” he added about the time away from golf.
A month after surgery, he started hitting short shots, wedges, and pitches. By the end of October, he was playing full shots. Now he’s defending at the RSM Classic and looking forward to his second full PGA Tour season.
Aberg credits the Aon Top 10, which he reached by winning last year’s RSM, as being his pathway to get into signature events at Pebble Beach and Riviera.
“I felt like I took advantage of a lot of programs last year with first the PGA TOUR U to get my Tour status and then obviously the Aon Next 10 where that was the main goal that I had in the fall when I played,” he explained.
His additional goal was to try to get into the top 50 in the world as quickly as possible because that would open up the door for Signature Events and majors. He made it unnecessary by winning the RSM and continuing to play well. He is now 5th in the world rankings.
As far as his knee goes, he says he’s 100 percent.
“Otherwise, I wouldn't be here,” he added.