Rookies Aberg and Clark have quality to end 45-year wait
It is 45 years since a debutant won the Masters. Fuzzy Zoeller’s famous victory in 1979, in a three-way sudden-death play-off with Ed Sneed and Tom Watson, was only the third time a debutant had won in the tournament’s history, the other two occasions being Horton Smith in the first Masters in 1934 and Gene Sarazen the following year.
Basically, first-timers winning at Augusta does not happen often.
“I don’t know if it’s quantifiable,” Tiger Woods mused in his press conference yesterday when asked how many shots per round he reckoned the vast mental database he had compiled from his 25 Masters entries to date might be worth to him. “But I can tell you, that understanding – where to miss it, how to miss it, the shot-shape to put it there – I don’t know what an exact number would be, but it is helpful.”
If ever there was a year when that trend could be bucked, though, it is this one. Never before have there been two debutants ranked in the world’s top 10 heading into a Masters. And in US Open champion Wyndham Clark and Swedish prodigy Ludvig Aberg, it feels as if there are two genuine rookie contenders.
Both are golfing anomalies. Clark’s win in the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club last year, beating Rory Mcilroy down the stretch, came out of nowhere. The 30-year-old had been a journeyman until then. But since then the Colorado-born player has won at Quail Hollow, made his Ryder Cup debut last autumn, won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am in February with a course-record 60, and finished runner-up to Scottie Scheffler in both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship in consecutive weeks last month. He is the highest-ranked debutant in the history of the Masters, at No4 in the world.
Aberg is, if anything, even more of a freak. The 24-year-old Swede was still at Texas Tech this time last year – not even a professional. Now he is ranked No9 in the world. Aberg is a phenomenon. He won on both the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour within five months of turning pro. He made Europe’s Ryder Cup team before he had started in a major. In his win in the RSM Classic last November he shot back-to-back rounds of 61 over the weekend. This week is not only his Masters debut but his major debut. Just extraordinary.
There are other debutants worth watching out for. Akshay Bhatia, the world No34, who won in Texas last weekend despite partially dislocating a shoulder before a playoff; Stephan Jager, ranked No42 and the recent winner of the Houston Open. But if you were putting your money on a first-timer it would be Clark or Aberg. While they lack experience, they are unencumbered by the pressure that can paralyse a Rory Mcilroy.
Aberg appeared so relaxed in his press conference yesterday. He said he knew he lacked experience but would “lean on” his caddie, Joe Skovron – former bagman for Rickie Fowler – as he worked out how to play Augusta National. “He’s seen it all, and I trust him with everything I have,” he stressed. “It’s not going to be perfect. It’s not going to be pretty all the time. But if you can somehow scrape it around and not get too high and not get too low, that’s how I try to do it. I know my qualities and know that’s going to be good enough to compete.”
Clark was even more bullish. Wearing a lurid orange and green shirt, he basically said he fancied his chances of becoming the first man since Zoeller to win on debut. “Yeah, I mean, stats like that are meant to be broken,” Clark said, smiling. “I know it’s a tall task. It’s a challenging golf course. There’s a bunch of good golfers. I really like myself on this golf course.”
There is a reason only three debutants have won this tournament (two if you discount the first Masters). But in Aberg and Clark, there is a real chance of it happening again.