The Masters 'dark horse' revealed as Ludvig Aberg has tongues wagging ahead of major debut

Double US Open winners sing Swede’s praises as its ‘best against the best’ at Augusta National

In an hour-long chat, double US Open winners Curtis Strange and Andy North eventually got round to offering their views on Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Tiger Woods but only after the first name mentioned to them about the 88th Masters had been Ludvig Aberg.

It’s astonishing to think that when you consider the Swede has never played in a major before and was still playing college golf 12 months ago, yet it was no surprise that neither Strange or North felt they’d been thrown a curveball at the start of media chinwag set up by ESPN ahead of the season’s opening major. Aberg, after all, is heading to Augusta National next week as the world No 9, having taken the professional game by storm since making the switch from the amateur ranks last June. He’s won on both the DP World Tour (Omega European Masters) and PGA Tour (RSM Classic), as well as justifying his captain’s pick from Luke Donald for last year’s Ryder Cup by helping Europe regain the trophy in Rome.

“I think this is our next superstar,” declared North, revealing he’d enjoyed the chance to watch the extremely personable 24-year-old in the flesh in his role as an on-course pundit on the PGA Tour in Hawaii earlier this year. “I'm so impressed with him. I love the way he plays the game. I love the way he attacks it. Doesn't fiddle around much. Just gets up and hits it and plays golf. I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does this week. I think Augusta National could be a great place for him. Yeah, he's a young guy and hasn't played there much, but I think that he's got a chance to have a great week.”

Ryder Cup team-mates Ludvig Aberg and Rory McIlroy pictured playing together in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this year. Picture: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images.

Not since Fuzzy Zoeller did the trick in 1979 has a first-timer come out on top in The Masters, but there was no hiding the exciting tone of Strange’s voice as he talked about Aberg, who achieved all sorts of success during a spell at Texas Tech, where Nairn’s Sandy Scott was one of his team-mates for the Red Raiders. “I love that you brought him up first,” said Strange. “He's my dark horse. In the last week, some of my researchers at ESPN said how can he be a dark horse? I said, ‘well, he's never played in a major before’. He's only 24. He's come on the scene so quickly. He dominated the college scene. He's dominated whenever he's played throughout his whole life, which is very short. He has a swing to envy. He has the size. Looks like the perfect physique to play this game.

“It looks like he has a way about him that can last years and years. He's not going to wear himself out with living and dying with every move that he makes, rightly or wrongly. I think the world of his game, and we have a couple of guys like that now on tour. He's a rookie, but he certainly could play well and, if he won there, it wouldn't surprise anybody, I don't think.”

Speaking the day after they’d both been gripped by a thrilling women’s college basketball match between Iowa and LSU, North and Strange expressed genuine excitement about the prospect of watching the “best against the best” in the season’s opening major as the likes of Aberg, Scheffler, McIlroy and Woods face LIV Golf players, including defending champion Rahm and five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, in the first of four mouth-watering meetings on the game’s biggest stages in 2024. Scheffler, the 2022 winner, is a strong favourite with the bookmakers, having cemented his position at the top of the Official World Ranking with back-to-back wins in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship before coming up just short in his bid to make that a title hat-trick in last week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open.

“He's done it around Augusta and I don't see any reason why he can't do it many more times there,” declared North, with Strange concurring. “He is dominating physically from tee to green," he said of Scheffler. "His stats are wonderful. I think some of that is because he has such great hands for such a big man. A part of the game that doesn't get recognised enough is his pitching and chipping around the greens. It's phenomenal. But he draws so well. When he draws so well, it sets up his iron game, which is No 1 on tour. It all kind of relates. He works at it.

Two-time US Open champion Andy North is a big man of Swede Ludvig Aberg, as is fellow ESPN analyst Curtis Strange. Picture: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images.

"He doesn't look like he's getting too big for his britches. He's had a good run. He's doing everything he needs to do leading up to a major championship. He's in good form. He's got a good mentality about him. It's all working for Scottie right now. But let's just not forget. He's got four or five other top players in the world that are entered this week that he hasn't been playing against. No disrespect to Scottie whatsoever, but it's the facts.”

Which brought the conversation around to Rahm, who held off LIV Golf duo Koepka and Phil Mickelson to claim his second major victory 12 months ago before being lured to the Saudi-backed breakaway circuit for a staggering £476 million towards the end of last year. In comparison to last year, the Spaniard has been lightly-raced in the first three months of this calendar campaign, so should that be a concern as he now bids to become the first back-to-back winner at the Georgia venue since Woods in 2002?

“That's a good question because I came in here last year thinking the same thing about all of the LIV players, the ones that potentially could win, and they proved me wrong,” said Strange. “Two or three of them played really well. So I don't think that's a point anymore. I expect Rahm to be ready to go. I think, because of what Rahm's been through a little bit the last year, going over there, he might feel that he has a little bit more to prove. Why do I say that? I really don't know. He really hasn't been around his mates as often last year, but he's incredibly talented, great champion at the Masters. There's no reason why he couldn't be champion there again this year.”

What about Woods, who pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history as he landed a fifth Green Jacket in 2019 but has only played 24 holes on the PGA Tour this year? “What he's given us over the last 25 years has been just second to none. It's been such a joy to be able to watch him,” said North. “If he were to say this is the last time he's going to play, we've seen so much greatness out of him, good for him if he wants to walk away. I mean, he doesn't have to do this for anybody else other than himself, and I think he still wants to prove that he can do it.”

Fuzzy Zoeller, pictured back in 1979.

Strange is sceptical about that. “I'm just glad he's playing,” he said of the 15-time major winner’s presence on this occasion having been in doubt until he turned up at Augusta National recently for a warm-up visit. “There's no doubt he's going to hit a lot of good shots and there's no doubt he's going to make some putts. But can he sustain that over two, three, four days? That's a big question mark.”