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There are two weeks to go until the 2023 Ryder Cup and the biennial event in Italy is the major subplot at this week’s BMW PGA Championship in Surrey, England.
All 12 of the European Ryder Cup team members are participating at Wentworth Club but it’s the rookie of the bunch making big waves this week.
Ludvig Aberg, who was playing college golf at Texas Tech just a few months ago, won for the first time on the DP World Tour just 12 days ago.
On Friday, after three birdies over his first eight holes, Aberg hit a speedbump with a double bogey on the ninth hole, but responded on the second nine with five birdies, including three straight to close out his round of 66 to get to 10 under.
Sweden’s Sebastian Soderberg is trying to crash the party. He shot the second 64 of the week – first-round leader Marcus Helligkilde had the other – and is at 10 under after 36 holes. He finished birdie-eagle, hitting his second on the par-5 closing hole to 15 feet and then draining the putt.
Considered the biggest Ryder Cup snub on the Team Europe side, Poland’s Adrian Meronk was 5 under after his first 18 holes and was a co-leader at 9 under for much of the day Friday. He is tied for third alongside Thomas Detry and Masahiro Kawamura.
Billy Horschel, who won this event two years ago, opened with a 75 but shot the round of the week with a 63 – thanks to seven birdies and an eagle – on Friday to zoom up the leaderboard. He’s tied for 16th.
BMW PGA: Full leaderboard | Star-studded pro-am photos
There was a 1 hour, 20-minute delay to Friday’s action due to fog and it was a sprint to finish the second round but they didn’t quite get all the golf in, so the round will resume Saturday morning.