X user challenged me<\/a> on my Aberg optimism, suggesting that Chris Gotterup has a brighter future ahead of him than Aberg. The two players are virtually the same age and Gotterup has won twice since Aberg\u2019s last victory in February 2025. It\u2019s a reasonable stance to take.\u00a0<\/p>\nThough I quite like Gotterup\u2019s game, I\u2019d still take Aberg for the long run.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Take a look at the table below. These are the 10 best early major championship careers of the past 17 years, ranked by Strokes Gained per round, starting in 2009 with the Rory McIlroy era.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Before we go any further, I need to add some context to the table above. The numbers are derived from players’ first two full seasons of major championships, where \u201cfull\u201d is defined as at least two major appearances. Essentially, I didn\u2019t want to count one-off major appearances as a player\u2019s first major season. So, in Scottie Scheffler\u2019s case, 2020 marks the start of his major career and his stats would therefore be calculated from his first two major seasons: 2020 and 2021.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The most important note is that this logic makes no consideration for age. Since we don\u2019t expect players to perform at their peak until their late-20s into their mid-30s, the table above effectively penalizes golfers for making major appearances at a young age. Based on the definition I used, Jon Rahm \u2013 who did not make the list \u2013 began his major championship career at age 21. McIlroy\u2019s began at 19. Jimmy Walker was 34 by the time he played two majors in the same year for the first time in 2013. The point is that we should expect young debutants’ performances to improve as they age into their primes, so showing up on this list at a young age is a positive signal for what their major championship career may hold.<\/p>\n
Aberg has four missed cuts in eight major championship appearances, and the other four finishes were all in the top 25, highlighted by contending late in each of his first two Masters appearances \u2013 second (2024) and seventh (2025). Outside of majors, Aberg\u2019s play has been solid too, with three worldwide wins since turning professional in the summer of 2023. Plus, he is equipped with a skill that generally withstands the test of time: elite driving.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though the above graphic has its limitations, early major championship success has been a strong indicator of future major championship success. Hideki Matsuyama ranked 13th in Strokes Gained per major championship round in his first two full major seasons. Xander Schauffele ranked 16th. Both have gone on to win major championships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Exceptions exist, but often great players demonstrate that they\u2019re great players early in their major championship careers. Jason Day did that before becoming the top-ranked player in the world in 2015. Scheffler did that before becoming the best player since Tiger Woods. Aberg has done that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll also note that Gotterup \u2013 who gained 2.45 strokes per round in his two major appearances in 2025 \u2013 will likely end up ranking very high in this table once he completes his second full season of majors in 2026. I\u2019d just like to see him sustain another year of solid play before placing him ahead of Aberg.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is an important year for Aberg to continue stepping in the right direction. A few recent results haven\u2019t been up to his standards, but let\u2019s not lose the forest for the trees when discussing one of golf\u2019s most promising talents. I\u2019m alarmed in the short term by what we witnessed at Torrey Pines. Over the long term, though, there aren\u2019t many better investments than real estate on Aberg Island.\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In this week\u2019s update, I\u2019m looking at players with pivotal upcoming seasons. I normally build a visual and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-452246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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