Ludvig Åberg and an NFL Star Met at the Masters and Their Competitive Mindsets Were Surprising

At the 2025 Masters, SI contributor Dan Evans went inside a Mercedes hospitality event to meet the 25-year-old Swede and NFL wide receiver Sterling Shepard, and he shares a story from the exclusive party.

Ludvig Aberg at the Mercedes Masters event. / Dan Evans

Last year, driving past a gated subdivision on the far side of Augusta during Masters week, I caught a glimpse of something that felt off-limits: black cars, security guards and the unmistakable air of a private event unfolding behind the pines. I didn’t know what was back there—but I wanted in.

This year I got my chance.

It started with a call as I was packing for Augusta. “Mercedes. Sterling Shepard. Ludvig Åberg. Private interview. You in?”

Not only was I in, but I had the wristband to prove it—for Firethorn House, Mercedes-Benz’s hospitality cabin tucked just behind the 10th fairway at Augusta National. As one of only three top-tier sponsors of the Masters, Mercedes doesn’t just buy ad space—it provides all transportation for players, officials and VIPs. Their footprint at Augusta is strategic and seamless, from courtesy vehicles to accomodations.

And this wasn’t just any place. Across town, Mercedes rents out more than 90 homes in the upscale River Island community, transforming it into essentially their own luxury village for the week. At the center of it all sits the River House clubhouse, Mercedes’s VIP headquarters in Augusta, complete with Michelin-level dinners and A-list guest speakers.

Inside, I followed Sterling Shepard into a private room where Ludvig Åberg, the 25-year-old Swede and world No. 5, stood waiting with a calm smile. The two athletes exchanged a warm handshake and quickly settled into a relaxed rhythm. As everyone got comfortable, I guided the conversation with a few opening questions that led to a wide-ranging exchange between two elite performers from very different arenas.

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“When you’re hitting the shot, that’s the only thing that matters,” Åberg said. “Just a couple milliseconds. You have to be there.”

Shepard nodded. “When I’m locking in, the noise goes away. But after the catch—when the crowd erupts—that’s what you do it for.”

Their routines couldn’t be more different. Shepard wakes at 4:30 a.m. on game days, restless. Åberg? “I sleep fine,” he said.

“That blew my mind,” Shepard told me later. “Twenty-five years old, sleeping through the night before the Masters?”

Earlier that day, Shepard had stepped onto a small practice green Mercedes had installed just outside Firethorn House—a replica of Augusta’s 18th green.

“I barely tapped it and it ran past the hole,” he said, laughing. “That gave me another level of respect.”

After the interview came dinner and then cigars on the back patio overlooking the water, where conversations drifted from sports to life and everything in between. Guests sipped cocktails and shared stories that didn’t need headlines to be worth hearing.

It wasn’t the glitz that stayed with me. It was the stillness—two athletes from different worlds, connected not by fame, but by the way they chase mastery.

As Shepard said: “I don’t have any footage. But I remember everything.”

Get more behind-the-scenes stories from the episode below from the Dan’s Golf World Show.