Coming into Masters week, we rank the 10 players most likely to find themselves in the Butler Cabin on Sunday evening alongside Scottie Scheffler and the leading amateur.
06. Ludvig Åberg
Not since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 has a rookie won the Masters, but few if any have been closer in the 45 years that followed than Ludvig Åberg.
Ok, so Scottie Scheffler may have won by four in the end, but the Swede had briefly held the lead in the final round and it wasn’t until a double bogey at the 11th that Scheffler finally put daylight between himself and the man who’d been a student 10 months ago.
He’s not the first and he certainly won’t be the last to fall victim to the first leg of Amen Corner, but what he showed in the previous 64 holes is more than enough evidence to think he’s more than capable of going one better this year.
If you drive it long and drive it straight, it’s a great combination anywhere, and the repetitive nature of his golf swing means that disasters like the 11th hole last year are generally few and very far between.
In the interim, he’s landed a big-time PGA Tour win at the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines, but since then his form has cooled a little, finishing T22 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and missing cuts at the Players Championship and, just this week, at the Valero Texas Open.
But there are just some players that you believe to be a perfect fit for Augusta National, both in talent and temperament and Åberg is one of them.
His win at Torrey Pines wasn’t built on an exceedingly good week with the putter, not on his effortless power off the tee, nor his accuracy and distance control with the irons, it was a combination of them all and that’s what makes him such a dangerous commodity.
While the bookmakers, the media and many casual fans are expecting this to turn into a McIlroy versus Scheffler shootout, Åberg’s is a name that neither of the big guns or the other leading contenders will want to see hanging around the top of the leaderboard.
It’s a common refrain that each visit to Augusta National teaches you something new, so of the leading lights at this year’s Masters, nobody will come into Masters week with as vast an improvement in knowledge from that of 2024.
He’s a major champion in waiting, that much was apparent before he’d even signed his first pro contract, it’s just a matter of where and when. And if last year’s performance on debut is anything to go by, a Green Jacket could well be the one that opens the floodgates.
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