At the Ryder Cup, Ludvig Aberg can prove he’s the real deal

Joaquin Niemann … All right, here we go. It doesn’t seem like 10 months ago when he first appeared in this space (for the U.S. Open), but he kept busy in the interim. His whirlwind schedule included redemption at the Latin America Amateur Championship and another victory in a professional event in his native Chile, this time by five strokes four weeks before his first appearance at the Masters that his LAAC victory yielded. Speaking of debuts, the Valero Texas Open marks his first tournament anywhere as a pro. He leaves behind the No. 1 ranking in the World Amateur Golf Ranking at just 19 years of age. Starts at the AT&T Byron Nelson (May 17-20) and Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide (May 31-June 3) are among others to follow. Chris Kirk … A moving target no matter your criteria, he connected for a T8 and T13 at TPC San Antonio in 2015 and 2016, respectively, but bracketed them with a T48 in 2011 and a missed cut last year. The 32-year-old also has registered a trio of top 15s in 2018, the last a 13th-place finish at Bay Hill a month ago, but he finished outside the top 30 in all of his other seven starts. While inconsistency among most touring professionals isn’t unusual, it is surprising that he’s competed the entire season while positioned no better than 150th in the Official World Golf Ranking, especially when you further consider that he’s 41st in strokes gained: tee-to-green, 46th in proximity, 43rd in adjusted scoring and 28th in bogey avoidance. Shawn Stefani … As he has before at the Houston Open, the native Texan delivered in his last start there with a T24. He warmed up the previous week with a T13 in the strong winds at Puntacana. While comfortable in that challenge, he’s also proven to be streaky, so there’s multiple reasons to expect him to sustain form in San Antonio where he’s 3-for-3 since 2015 but still chasing his first top 25. His confidence comes to life on the greens on which he’s 41st in strokes gained: putting this season. Nate Lashley … The 35-year-old has endured the usual challenges facing rookies at this level, but he’s turned it around just enough to warrant some attention in the wind of the Hill Country. After placing T28 at Corales where he prevailed on the Web.com Tour last year, he recorded a career-best T18 in Houston. What’s more, his strength of striping irons matters most in his debut at TPC San Antonio. Currently 49th on the PGA TOUR in greens in regulation and leading the circuit in proximity to the hole. Also T26 in bogey avoidance. Daniel Summerhays … A tournament that has been very, very good to him extended another opportunity in the form of a sponsor exemption this week. Saddled with conditional status this season, playing time has been limited to seven starts. He failed to crack a top 50 in the three cuts he made, but since 2012 at TPC San Antonio, he’s 6-for-6 with three top 10s and a T13.

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For the golfer who wants his resume to be the envy of his fellow professionals, there are certain venues that capture attention. Obviously wins at Augusta National come not only with a Green Jacket but yards of cache. Really, wins at any major, of which Mark O’Meara has a pair including one at the Masters, look good on a resume. But what about other venues? Where does it really matter if a guy has won outside of the four majors? Surely, TPC Sawgrass is on the short list. And so is Pebble Beach, home of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA TOUR and the PURE Insurance Championship on PGA TOUR Champions, otherwise known as O’Meara’s personal playground. O’Meara, 65, won an event at Pebble Beach in each of three decades beginning with the 1979 California State Amateur. He won the PGA TOUR event played at Pebble five times, including the last time it was called the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am and four times after AT&T became the title sponsor. “Sometimes you hear people say O’Meara won 16 times but five were at Pebble Beach,” O’Meara said Wednesday. “Well, with all due respect to the great venues out there, where would you rather win five? Unless you win a major or The Players Championship, Pebble is probably next on the hit list.” Phil Mickelson joined O’Meara in 2019 as a five-time winner at Pebble. O’Meara said he texted Lefty in the aftermath and said, “Congratulations but I think that’s enough, young man.” O’Meara has been hitting Pebble hard since his first trip to the Monterey Peninsula, for the California State Amateur in 1979, when he was a senior at Long Beach State. He was immediately taken by the beauty and mystique of the area. It also didn’t hurt that he won the 36-hole final match 8&7. O’Meara credits that first trip as being a cornerstone of his success at Pebble Beach. Before he had even turned pro, he had good vibes for the place. He also didn’t mind the poa annua greens. They can be very bumpy and tricky to read, but O’Meara grew up in Mission Viejo putting on poa annua. “It was a combination of factors that lead to my success at Pebble,” said O’Meara, who added that he’ll play about a dozen events on PGA TOUR Champions this season, including the PURE Insurance Championship. “First for me to go back there and have all the fond memories of the State Amateur. And a lot of great players won the California State Amateur. I also love to play so much in the natural beauty and growing up on poa annua greens that are very bumpy and knowing you have to be very patient. “You also have to be patient because being in the final group it can take almost six hours to play. You’re playing with amateurs. I love amateurs. My dad was a real people person, a sales guy. I had more fun playing with amateurs than I did my pros. They were an escape for me to not always worry about what was happening with Mark O’Meara on the golf course. It took my mind off what I was doing right or wrong on the course. Instead of just focusing on me, if I could engage with the amateurs it took my mind away. I just used them as a positive, not a distraction. Other guys don’t feel the same way about it. That’s why I had a lot of success at Pebble.” O’Meara won the tournament once with his dad as his amateur partner. He cited that as one of the most cherished memories of his life. The year was 1990. They had first played together in 1986, the year after his first victory at the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am. And they made the cut. After O’Meara won in 1989, he invited his dad to come play with him one more time. “I gave it to him as a Christmas present,” O’Meara said. “I flew him and mom out and then I won the tournament playing alongside my dad. I put that right at the top of the list of great things, winning at Augusta with a putt on the final hole, winning the U.S. Amateur. But to play with my father and coming up the last hole, the 18th hole at Pebble, you can’t do better than that.”

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