AUGUSTA – Ludvig Aberg may have fallen short in his bid to make a winning Major championship debut on April 14, but his runner-up finish was the best by a Swede at the Masters and reaffirmed his belief that his day in the winner's circle will come.

Starting the final round three shots back of Scottie Scheffler, the 24-year-old went toe-to-toe with the world No. 1 as he tried to reel him in but ultimately failed.

His closing round of 69 saw him finish at seven-under 281 for the tournament, four shots back of the American.

“This being my first Major championship, you never really know what it’s going to be like until you’re there and experiencing it,” said Aberg.

“I think this week has given me a lot of experiences and a lot of lessons learnt in terms of those things. It makes me really hungry, and it makes me want to do it again and again.”

While some observers may not have been familiar with Aberg before the Masters, he did not come out of nowhere.

He enjoyed a meteoric rise, having started 2023 outside the top 3,000 in the world rankings before ending the year inside the top 30.

Aberg, who was also part of Europe’s winning Ryder Cup team in Italy in 2023, felt his performances over four days at Augusta National will give him confidence for the rest of the season.

“Coming into this week, I felt like I was playing well and I was swinging the way I wanted to,” said Aberg, whose hopes were ultimately crushed by a double bogey at the par-four 11th, where his second shot ended up in a pond.

“But, you know, there’s so much more to golf. There’s a lot of things that need to come together, and I felt like we did a lot of golf stuff the last couple of weeks.”

Aberg has his heart set on winning Major championships and becoming world No. 1. He said the week at Augusta National had helped get him get one step closer to those dreams.

“It’s been that way ever since I picked up a golf club, and that hasn’t changed,” said Aberg, who was bidding to become the first Masters rookie to win a Green Jacket since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

“So I think this week solidifies a lot of those things are there, and we just need to keep doing those things and put ourselves in positions to win tournaments.”

Collin Morikawa, who finished joint-third alongside Max Homa and Tommy Fleetwood on 284 also saw some positives.

“We put a lot of pieces of the puzzle together this week,” Morikawa said, after struggling to a 74 to finish seven strokes adrift.

“After watching Scottie this week, I know what to do if I really want to close this gap on what he’s doing...

“I fully believe that I still have it...

“I’ve just got to keep digging a little bit deeper and really just be strong with myself.”

REUTERS, AFP