Trailing Matt Fitzpatrick by a shot with two holes to play in The Players Championship, Cameron Young came through with two strokes of brilliance to win The Players Championship.
At the treacherous par-3 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, Young hit a sand wedge to less than 10 feet from the hole on the island green and rolled in the birdie putt to tie Fitzpatrick, who had two-putted for par from 29 feet.
Young followed that with the longest tee shot in the history of the tournament on the 18th hole, a towering 375-yard draw that left him with just 98 yards to the flag. Fitzpatrick hit his driver through the fairway into the pine straw and had to pitch out short of the green.
After Young hit a wedge 15 feet from the pin, Fitzpatrick chipped to 8 feet. Young hit his birdie putt 8 inches from the hole, and when Fitzpatrick missed his par putt, Young tapped in for the amazingly clutch victory.
“The (drive) on 18, my overarching thought is I’m going to hit the best shot of my life right here,” said Young, 28, who earned $4.5 million for his second career victory. “I don’t know if I can think of one that’s better.
“It’s a scary tee shot. To have hit that one in that moment, that’s pretty good.”
What made that tee shot even more impressive is that on Saturday, Young drove into the water on the 18th and finished with a double bogey.
Solid Tournament for Young
Young shot rounds of 68-67-72-68 to finish at 13 under par. Fitzpatrick also closed with a 68 to finish solo second at 12 under. Xander Schauffele was another shot back in third, and Robert MacIntyre was fourth at 10 under.
Young said he didn’t get nervous until the final putt of the tournament.
“I was really, really good until I had to make the eight-inch putt on the last hole, and I just about fell apart,” Young said. “That hole looked really, really small there from pretty close range. I couldn’t get my line to point anywhere near the hole, and I went and hit it anyway, which maybe I shouldn’t have. But it went in, so all is well.”
Fitzpatrick thought his tee shot on 18 would follow the same path as Young’s draw. But instead it went into the trees on the right side of the hole, leaving him with no chance of hitting his second shot onto the green.
“I felt like I hit a good shot, maybe pushed it slightly,” Fitzpatrick said of his tee shot. “I know Cam hits a draw. His moved a little bit, and I figured mine would do the same. Obviously, it just went dead straight. Once you’re out of position, it’s difficult to make your par.”
Watery Shots Sink Aberg’s chances
Ludvig Aberg led the tournament after the second and third rounds and started the final day with a three-shot lead over Michael Thorbjornsen and four shots over Young.
After going out in even-par 36, Aberg hit his 7-wood second shot from 267 yards on the par-5 11th hole into the water short and right of the green. That resulted in a bogey.
On the next hole, Aberg hit his tee shot left into the water. He double bogeyed the par-4 12th, dropping him out of the lead. He ended up shooting 4-over 76 to finish in a tie for fifth at 9 under.
“It got away from me quick there,” said Aberg about Nos. 11 and 12. “It was just poor swings. I felt like I’ve had that sort of 7-wood right miss a few times this week. Then I tried to press a little bit on 12, hitting driver where sometimes you can play 3-wood. Obviously, I’m really disappointed.”
Strong Finish for Schauffele
Schauffele birdied three of his last four holes, sinking a 20½-foot birdie putt on the 18th, to close with a 69.
Both Young and Aberg came into The Players off a strong finish the previous week. They tied for third at 12 under, their first top-5s of the year, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Making his second start of the 2026 season since returning from back surgery in November 2021, Players champion Justin Thomas tied for eighth, his first top-10 finish since finishing seventh in the 2025 Tour Championship.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, the only golfer to win The Players back-to-back (2023, 2024), finished tied for 22nd at 5 under. It was his 27th consecutive top-25 finish, the second-longest streak since 1983, when Tiger Woods had 38 straight top 25s.
The Florida Swing concludes with the Valspar Championship at the Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course in Palm Harbor. Viktor Hovland is the defending champion. Schauffele and Thomas are also playing, along with Arnold Palmer Invitational winner Akshay Bhatia.
