2024 Sentry Tournament of Champions: Top 10 power rankings at Kapalua
The PGA Tour begins its two-week Hawaiian swing at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Golf Power Rank. 10. OWGR: 29th. 2022-23 FedEx Cup: 135th. Ludvig Aberg
Ludvig Aberg’s young celebrity continues to rise. While not flashy, he’s a phenomenal player who, by all accounts, is a well-adjusted human being. One who’s easy to root for and not afraid of the moment.
The first-year pro was one of golf’s big winners in 2023, backing up his storied collegiate career at Texas Tech with a win on the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. Those weren’t flashes in the pan. Aberg was a top-10 and top-20 machine.
It was too bad he didn’t get to tee it up in the majors. He made up for lost time by being an additive part of the winning European Ryder Cup team this fall.
The 24-year-old played a ton of golf, getting as many starts as he could to start making money and improve his status on both tours.
Something tells me Aberg won’t have to concern himself with status for a while.
The next step on the ladder in his career is to win an event with a good field. No offense, the Omega European Masters and RSM Classic.
Aberg will be as sharp as anyone in this event coming out of the offseason. He teed it up in the last PGA Tour event of the season in November (win) and played well alongside fellow Swede Madelene Sagstrom last month at the Grant Thornton Invitational (third place).
Aberg will have the benefit of seeing some courses for the second time in 2024. Kapalua unfortunately is not one of them.
This can be a tough course to crack on the first try. It’s why I was hesitant to slot Aberg a little higher.
However, he’s brimming with confidence and has the game to play well anywhere.
Aberg ranks second on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (.982 per round), 10th in SG: Tee-to-Green (1.185), and 10th in SG: Total (1.507).
Placing 42nd in SG: Putting (.322) is no small feat seeing greens for the first time each week.
As his confidence and comfortability out on tour continue to grow, I see the one weakness, if you want to call it that, improving. That’s his iron play, which was still roughly a net zero in strokes gained (-0.006 SG: Approach).