Ludvig Aberg’s meteoric rise shows no signs of slowing down after the Ryder Cup rookie cruised into a two-shot lead in the BMW PGA Championship.
Playing just his 10th event since turning professional, Aberg carded a third round of 66 at Wentworth to reach 16 under par in pursuit of back-to-back victories on the DP World Tour.
England’s Tommy Fleetwood delighted the large crowds with a 67 to share second place on 14 under with Scotland’s Connor Syme, who covered the back nine in 31 in a superb 65.
Masters champion Jon Rahm, who was two over par for the tournament after 21 holes, is four shots off the pace following a 66 which included vital birdies on the 17th and 18th.
Aberg, whose victory in the European Masters earlier this month earned him a Ryder Cup wild card from Europe captain Luke Donald hours later, admitted winning the BMW PGA Championship was “very, very high” on his bucket list.
“It is one of the biggest events on the DP World Tour, it’s been like that for a long time,” the 23-year-old said.
“I’ve got memories of Alex (Noren) winning here when he hit an unbelievable shot into 18. It’s really cool to see myself up there, I have to pinch myself in the arm every now and then but it’s quite cool.
“I think expectations just changed after Switzerland in terms of knowing I can do it. Even though I’ve won in college quite a bit it is different, whether you like it or not, to win on the pro stage and it was pretty cool to do that.
“I could tell myself that I could do it and was good enough and hopefully I’ll be able to do that tomorrow too.”
Fleetwood is also targeting a significant victory in front of a home crowd which roared him on every step of the way, the 32-year-old kickstarting his recovery from a slow start with an eagle on the fourth courtesy of a lesson from Rory McIlroy.
“I had a lesson out of the rough from Rory on Monday when the Ryder Cup team were in Rome,” Fleetwood said.
“I always struggle to get steep on it and I am always chopping out of the rough so he just helped me with a couple of things on how better to do it really.
“It worked a couple of times today. The one with an eight iron on number four was good, it came out perfect and it is a new shot in my locker.”
Fleetwood has endured several near-misses this season, including losing a play-off in the Canadian Open when Nick Taylor holed from 70 feet for a winning eagle, but would love to taste victory in front of a “biased” home crowd.
“This event means a lot to pretty much all of us on the Tour and I have not had much joy here to be honest,” Fleetwood added.
“But the crowds this week have been amazing, very biased in my direction which is great, and this event is one that everyone would love to tick off in their career.”
Syme will play alongside Fleetwood and Aberg in the final group on Sunday and will have plenty of family support after revealing his father Stuart, who is also his coach, had missed a wedding to remain at Wentworth this weekend.
“He made the decision when I was making a few birdies yesterday (Friday) afternoon,” Syme said.
“It’s my mum’s best friend’s daughter’s wedding. They spoke and my mum was happy to go on her own. My mum said that if my dad could help me even a little bit by staying down, that would be fine with her.
“I actually didn’t make that decision, by the way, so I don’t feel any pressure at all! I was expecting him to be heading home when I came off the course on Friday, but there he was.”
McIlroy revels in 'awesome' 25th PGA Tour title alongside Lowry
Rory McIlroy said his 25th PGA Tour title was made all the more special by the fact it came alongside Shane Lowry after the Irish duo won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in a play-off on Sunday.
Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer were among the early starters in Avondale and set a target of 25 under by carding a nine-under 63 in the fourth round.
It went down to the wire as McIlroy and Lowry birdied the final hole to set up a play-off, which they won by making par after Trainer missed his par putt.
The victory took McIlroy to a quarter of a century on the PGA Tour, and he said lifting the trophy alongside a close friend made it one of his most memorable.
The world number two said: "To win any PGA Tour event is very cool, but to do it with one of your closest friends…
"Think about where we met and where we've come from, to be on this stage and do this together, it was just awesome to be able to do it alongside this guy."
Former Open champion Lowry, who now has three PGA titles to his name, added: "Rory brings a crowd, and people love him.
"We've got a lot of love this week in New Orleans, we've had just the best week. We went out there, we had loads of fun, and we won the tournament. You couldn't ask for a better week."
A closer look at the hot streak of world number one Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler claimed his fourth win in five events on Monday when the weather-delayed RBC Heritage concluded at Hilton Head.
That run includes a second Masters title and has seen the world number one extend his sizeable lead over Rory McIlroy at the top of the rankings.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the facts and figures around Scheffler’s streak and how they compare to previous runs.
What makes Scheffler’s streak so impressive?Winning any event on the PGA Tour is difficult, but Scheffler has claimed two of the biggest in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, a major championship at Augusta National and the RBC Heritage, which boasted a stronger than usual field after being elevated to a Signature Event this season. Victory at Sawgrass made Scheffler the first player ever to win back-to-back Players titles. His only “failure” was a tie for second in the Houston Open.
Has this been done before?Scheffler is the first player to win four times in five starts on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods, who did so at the end of 2007 and again to start 2008. He is also the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh (2004) – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour. With many players taking a break after winning a major, Scheffler is also the first to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming a green jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985.
How much has Scheffler earned?Scheffler has banked an average of £3.17million for each of his four victories and “only” £448,000 for his five-way tie for second behind Stephan Jaeger in the Houston Open. The total sum of £13.14m would place Scheffler 145th on the PGA Tour’s career earnings list and he is closing in on the single-season record of £17million he set last year. In comparison, Woods won nine times on the PGA Tour in 2000, including three major titles, and never finished worse than 23rd in 20 starts. His prize money totalled £7.4m.
Does the world ranking reflect Scheffler’s dominance?In a word, yes. Ahead of the Genesis Invitational in mid-February, Rory McIlroy could have become world number one by winning at Riviera with Scheffler finishing third or worse. Now, Scheffler has more than double the total and average points of McIlroy, while the average points gap between the top two (7.6493) is bigger than that between McIlroy and the players tied for 4,123st in the standings.
So is Scheffler the most dominant player in world golf?Not quite. Hours before Scheffler completed his victory in Hilton Head, fellow American Nelly Korda had wrapped up a fifth consecutive win on the LPGA Tour by claiming her second major title in the Chevron Championship. Korda’s winning streak matches that of Nancy Lopez in 1978 and Annika Sorenstam in 2004-05, although her bid for an unprecedented sixth straight win will have to wait after she cited exhaustion when pulling out of this week’s event in Los Angeles. While Scheffler has earned £13.14m from his last five events, Korda’s five wins have been worth £1.94m.
Scottie Scheffler matches Tiger Woods achievement with fourth win in five
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler hailed his mental strength after making it four wins in five starts with a rain-delayed victory at the RBC Heritage.
Scheffler returned to Hilton Head on Monday morning holding a five-stroke lead with three holes to play after a storm halted proceedings on Sunday.
The world number one dropped a shot at the last to finish 19 under par, three shots ahead of fellow American Sahith Theegala, with Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark another stroke back.
Scheffler is the first player to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming the Green Jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985 and the first to win four times in five starts on the US-based circuit since Tiger Woods in 2007-08.
Each of Scheffler’s last seven wins have come with at least eight of the world’s top 10 in the field and he is the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour.
“I was able to go home for a couple days and celebrate,” Scheffler said.
“I didn’t really put much thought into it. I had committed to playing the tournament here, it was part of the plan, so we stuck to the plan.
“I talked about it at the beginning of the week – I didn’t show up here just to have some sort of ceremony and have people tell me congratulations. I came here with a purpose, got off to a slow start but after that played some really nice golf.
“I do have fairly high expectations for myself and when I show up at tournaments, I try to do my best.
“I’ve talked a lot about kind of the preparation and what it takes for me to show up on a first tee ready to go, and I feel like I’ve been putting in the work and been playing some good golf, and it’s nice to be seeing some results for that with wins.
“On the course, I think the last month or so I’ve been as good mentally as I have in a long time and I think that’s why I am seeing some of the results.
“This week could be a good example of starting off and looking at the leaderboard on Thursday and everybody is just making birdie after birdie and I’m sitting there over par and I’ve had a shank on the day.
“I just did my best to stay patient and wait until I got hot.
“Had a nice finish to the round on Thursday and then had a really solid Friday where I felt like I played better than I scored, and then I had Saturday where I just played some really good golf.”
Rory McIlroy carded a final-round 74 to slip into a tie for 33rd.
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