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Billy Foster recounts a story about one of Europe’s most high-profile golfers playing alongside a young Tiger Woods in 1996. “He’s a little raw,” was the sniffy verdict. Within a year, Woods won his first Masters and disappeared over the horizon.
Foster’s own perceptions appear sound. The veteran caddie, now on the bag of Matt Fitzpatrick, was in the company of Ludvig Åberg as the Swede made his professional debut at last June’s Canadian Open. On the Friday evening, Foster sent a text to Luke Donald. “If you are good enough, you are old enough,” Foster told Europe’s Ryder Cup captain. “This lad is going to be a stud. Keep tabs on his every move.” Donald did more than that. Åberg made his Ryder Cup debut as Europe reclaimed the trophy in Rome. Donald had labelled his rookie a “generational talent”. Eslöv, a town with a population of around 20,000 near Malmö, had produced a global star.
Adam Scott had to be convinced that Åberg’s appearance at Augusta National in the coming days would be his first at a major. The illusion is created by the fact the 24-year-old has won on both sides of the Atlantic, marched inside the world’s top 10 and played a role in that Ryder Cup victory despite never featuring in any of golf’s big four events. It would also be no major surprise should Åberg become the first player since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 to win on his Masters debut.
“It’s been quite a rise,” says Scott, who won the Green Jacket in 2013. “But there are really no weaknesses to see in his game. Looking at every area, it looks very complete already as a player. He has obviously got some creativity as well as learning incredibly sound fundamentals.
“It’s very hard to call who’s going to make it and who’s not now. I think the separators are much less today than 20 years ago but when you see a guy like Ludvig come along you go: ‘Can’t miss.’ He has all the attributes to play at Augusta. He has all the attributes to play everywhere.”
Scott rightly acknowledges it was far less of a gamble for Åberg to enter the United States college system – he had a hugely successful time at Texas Tech – than when he left Queensland for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the late 1990s. Åberg’s college coach, Greg Sands, also has positive history with Swedish golfers.
“The reputation of our college with the Swedish federation is good so that probably helped with Ludvig,” says Sands. “It came down to him choosing us or Arizona State, he visited both but he felt best suited to us. We had a Norwegian coach at the time, he trusted him and myself. He also thought the weather here would be more challenging. We are all better off for his decision, for sure.” The funding model used for golf scholarships for Swedish players means they are less likely than some others to abandon college before a degree is complete.
Åberg had previously attended the sports-specialised Filbornaskolan boarding school in Helsingborg. “The guys from there are mature, it’s almost like they have been in college already,” Sands says. “So it’s not quite the culture shock coming here, staying in a dorm and the like. The ones from that particular school also want to work very hard. They take things really seriously.”
To Sands’ credit, he does not claim to have known Åberg would take professional golf by storm. “He always had the physical tools but with us he quickly picked up on all the little things you need to win,” says Sands. “He knew he had to get better at putting, pitching, reading lines. He took a very direct approach to his weaknesses and rolled up his sleeves. He wanted to know where his deficiencies were because he saw failure as a great motivator to get better. People fall in love with his physical skills but they don’t know how strong he is mentally and how much he wants to learn.
“You realise this kid is really good and you know he is going to be a successful professional player. I told people he would win a major. But you also see lots of good players who don’t adjust right away. I may not have predicted he would do so many things so fast. I underestimated his ability to get comfortable. He could win that major now.”
There were, though, obvious clues about what may happen next. Åberg rose to the summit of the amateur world rankings. His 2021 success at the Jones Cup in Georgia came in woeful weather. Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed are also former winners of that event.
Åberg’s composure is quickly apparent. So, too, is the pace with which he goes about his business. His pre-shot routine is one of the quickest in the game. Paul McGinley, Europe’s 2014 Ryder Cup captain, admires the “unflappable aura” of Åberg. McGinley adds: “He’s got that wonderful disposition of: ‘Next shot, next shot, next shot. Let’s not overthink it, let’s just play it.’ From the minute he takes the club out of the bag, discusses quickly with the caddy and stands over the ball, one look and bang. There’s a lot to be said for that.
“You can see that he’s in that wonderful place of enjoying the environment that he’s in, taking things in his stride, not getting over-affected by success.”
McGinley believes only the level of Åberg’s ambition will determine how good he can be. Åberg is ruthless; an excellent 2023 still saw him change caddie to Joe Skovron, who was alongside Rickie Fowler during the American’s prominence a decade ago.
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Åberg visited Augusta National in the aftermath of last month’s Players Championship. He also played there during his first year of college. “I just remember being on cloud nine,” Åberg recalls of his maiden trip. “You’re walking around thinking: ‘What is this place?’ It’s just so cool and special. It will be a treat to play there again. It was in my mind that I might go back as a tour professional but I probably didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it has. Augusta has been on my mind since the moment I qualified.” Swede dreams are made of this.
Åberg’s aspirations clearly do not end with merely taking his place in the Masters field. “I know I have improved a lot in the last year but I also know I have a lot more to give,” he says.
“Obviously I feel comfortable with my qualities and my capabilities. I think that’s what’s most important. Hopefully I’ll be able to perform well on that stage and I’ll just see where that ends up. But I feel comfortable with what I’m doing and I don’t try to change too much from week to week.”
Shane Lowry had not played with Åberg until a practice round the day before the Ryder Cup began. The Irishman was quickly convinced about what he was watching. “He is a future world No 1,” Lowry says. “He is the most impressive golfer I have seen since Rory (McIlroy).”
Lowry does point out that “all the other stuff” someone in Åberg’s position has to deal with may become more important than how he strikes tee shots or irons. Should Åberg’s career take off in the manner so many predict, hype around him will bring extra pressure.
“I think he has to take advantage of this momentum he has now,” says Scott. “Inevitably it comes and goes throughout a career, and worse for some than others. But when you’re running, you’ve got to keep running and keep pushing. As far as I see as another player, nothing is stopping him from breaking through and winning a major. He should do that right now.
“At a very similar age after I’d won the Players, it was a chance for me to really run into those majors. And I just struggled at them. If I was critical of myself, it was all coming a bit easy and at the biggest tournaments, they expose any flaws you have. So I could have pushed myself harder, looking back on it. And we had Tiger to a point where it was hard to believe you were going to beat him. That is just not the case out here today.”
Henrik Stenson, whom Åberg grew up idolising, took his compatriot out for dinner during a PGA Tour stop in San Antonio two years ago. Stenson does not claim to have had anything like a key role in Åberg’s development but is well placed to assess the golfer’s potential value to Sweden. “He has a mature head on young shoulders,” says Stenson. “He goes about his things without being super low or super high. He keeps himself within his own box and does things his way.
“We still have such a strong heritage in hockey, football and all the winter sports and so on, so golf’s always kind of knocking on the door a little bit in that sense. But it all depends on how dominant you become within a sport as well. If Ludvig were to become as dominant as a Björn Borg or Ingemar Stenmark or Zlatan (Ibrahimovic) in golf, why couldn’t he be as big in that sense? But there’s a lot of shots to hit before we get to that point.” At Augusta, the fewer the better. It is the latest, fascinating test for Åberg.
