World Wide Technology Championship: Ludvig Aberg’s heater continues

Ludvig Aberg fired off a bogey-free 7-under 65 to put him at 11-under entering the weekend at the World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico. He is just one shot off the lead, but Camilo Villegas and others are still out on the course looking to post lower scores.

Nevertheless, the PGA Tour rookie continued his hot streak at Tiger Woods’ El Cardonal at Diamante course.

“It’s nuts. If someone asked me that a couple of months ago, I would not have believed them,” Aberg said in response to getting asked about being a betting favorite in a PGA Tour event already.

“I like to think that I prepare well for each event. I like to have fun on the golf course, and whenever Thursday comes around, I like to be ready. To me, that’s nothing I can control — it’s outside of my control. What I can do is prepare and play as well as I can and then see where that takes me.”

Since the Wyndham Championship in early August, the 24-year-old has done nothing but play well.

Aberg got his first professional win at the Omega European Masters, followed by a tie for 10th at the BMW PGA Championship the next week. The youngster then put forth an incredible rookie Ryder Cup run, helping earn two full points for Team Europe.

He and Viktor Hovland delivered a historic blow to Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka that people will talk about for years to come. The former Texas Tech Red Raider is in the zone and has been in good form since he turned pro.

Coming off that Ryder Cup performance, Aberg tied for second at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October, falling just short in a five-man playoff. In Las Vegas at the Shriners Children’s Open, it was a T13 finish.

In his last 26 rounds of competitive golf on the PGA and DP World Tours, 23 were in the 60s, and 12 of them were 66 or lower. The last time he signed for a score not starting with the number six was in the third round of the Wyndham Championship — he shot a 71. That week, he finished tied for 14th.

The Swedish golfer has momentum heading into the weekend. After two bogeys on Thursday, he kept his card clean on Friday. He has done an excellent job taking advantage of the par-5’s, dropping five birdies.

His second-round score shot him 26 places up the leaderboard as the rest of the field finishes.

“It was good, it was really nice. I was in the fairway a lot, and then I hit my second shots, the approach shots in the right tiers and the right spots on these tricky greens,” Aberg said after his second round. “So that made it quite easy and made it quite stressful, but really happy with the way I played golf, and hopefully, I’ll be able to keep that up.”

Two rounds stand between Aberg and his first PGA Tour win. It would only be fitting for him to earn his first PGA Tour win on Woods’ course, seeing how his career has started.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.