ATLANTA — Name it a COVID casualty.
4 years in the past, as a sophomore at Texas Tech, Ludvig Åberg regarded primed to signify the Pink Raiders on the East Lake Cup, a collegiate competitors held at East Lake each fall. The Atlanta-area course hosts 4 high males’s and girls’s groups yearly, because the event takes after the NCAA Championship.
However Åberg couldn’t take part because of the unusual occasions we lived via.
“The week earlier than [the East Lake Cup], my roommate received COVID, however I used to be wholesome and match, however because of contact tracing, or no matter they known as it again then, so I couldn’t go,” Åberg stated Tuesday forward of the Tour Championship.
“I used to be at dwelling watching it, and I keep in mind it was powerful.”
Pepperdine College gained the group competitors that yr, whereas Patrick Welch, who now performs on the Korn Ferry Tour, took dwelling particular person honors as an Oklahoma Sooner.
Alas, that has pressured Åberg to make his East Lake debut 4 years later than initially anticipated.
“I’ve regarded ahead to it for a very long time,” Åberg stated.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25591268/2168466566.jpg)
“I’ve watched this event for a very long time.”
The 24-year-old Swede arrives in Atlanta because the fifth-ranked participant within the FedEx Cup standings. Because of the beginning strokes format the Tour Championship now employs, Åberg will begin at 5-under-par. Scottie Scheffler, the present chief of the FedEx Cup standings, will start at 10-under, two photographs away from Xander Schauffele, who’s second.
However this handicapped format doesn’t change Åberg’s strategy this week.
“I don’t suppose it’s going to change an excessive amount of for me. It’s nonetheless a 72-hole golf event. I haven’t seen the golf course, so I don’t actually know tips on how to play it if selections are to be made,” Åberg stated.
“However you’ve nonetheless received to go play actually good golf, aggressive golf, if you would like an opportunity to win, which in the end that’s what we would like. We’ll nonetheless give you a great sport plan. At any time when you could have the chance to be aggressive, each time there’s a time to be aggressive to a extra conservative spot, that’s what we’re going to do. I feel it is dependent upon the setup. It is dependent upon the format. However I don’t suppose it actually adjustments the place you begin within the event.”
Fortunately for Åberg, everybody must be taught the golf course this week. East Lake underwent a whole restoration after final yr’s Tour Championship, gained by Viktor Hovland. So, if COVID-19 had not impacted Åberg’s look on the 2020 East Lake Cup, it probably wouldn’t have finished him any good for this week anyway.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By. You’ll want to try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.
