STEVIE TEE
Sensation Aberg can deliver just like idol Gerrard
FROM NEIL MCLEMAN in Augusta
LUDVIG ABERG will bid to bring the drive of his idol Steven Gerrard to his Major debut at the Masters this week.
The Liverpool-supporting Swede turned pro only last June but has already won on both sides of the Atlantic and made a stunning Ryder Cup debut. But the world No.9 could have been a footballer – and based his all-action game on the former England captain.
The future European superstar, who has an English girlfriend, said: “Until I moved to a new school when I was 15, I was mad about football. I still am, even if golf takes up a little more of my time now.
“Steven Gerrard was my idol. Positive and everywhere on the pitch. I tried to be like him.”
Luke Donald described Aberg as a generational player when he picked him to become the first player ever to appear in the Ryder Cup before a Major.
On Thursday at Augusta, he will write the latest chapter in his rapid rise to fame which has also seen the Reds fan turn down two approaches from LIV Golf because of “a number of red flags”.
He looks like a cross between a young Tom Brady and a Norse god but his rapid progression from Texas Tech college star to world top 10 has earned comparisons with Tiger Woods. And former US captain Curtis Strange has picked him as his dark horse to become the first rookie winner here since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.
But Aberg, 24, said: “It is going to be nerve-racking but I am looking forward to it. Nerves are a good thing and it is even a privilege to feel them. I am sure that, walking to the first tee, I am not going to feel my legs or my arms.
“But it is also a dream becoming reality. My parents will be there, my sister and my girlfriend (former Texas Tech tennis star Olivia Peet) too. It is going to be awesome and I can’t wait.”
Aberg has already beaten a Masters champion at the Ryder Cup in Rome when he combined with Viktor Hovland to thrash Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka 9&7 and leave the world No.1 in tears.
“We spoke of it recently, it is a memory we will always have together,” said the Swede. “It was a bit of a crazy day, amazing. None of us expected something like that would happen. And thinking about it now, I feel like it was a validation that I could accomplish that, beating the world No.1, a Major winner and a five-time Grand Slam winner. That is what I have taken from it.”
The 6ft 3in Aberg, the first player to earn his card by being No.1 in the PGA University standings, has taken every step in his large, unemotional stride. He speaks English with an American accent but he is as Swedish as a plate of meatballs.
“What you see on the outside is a bit different from what I feel inside,” he insisted. “I feel this whirlwind but I have such confidence in my abilities that I know what I can achieve. I try to bring out this confidence every tournament.
“Experiencing these emotions, it is what I have wanted to live for ages. And, now I am living it, it is almost as if I am looking at myself from the outside and seeing myself smiling because I am having so much fun.”