Pinned
Link copied
Cameron Young picked up the biggest win of his career in thrilling fashion on Sunday, as he took advantage of an implosion from Ludvig Åberg and out-dueled Matt Fitzpatrick with a final round 68 to capture the 2026 Players Championship.
Young, who fell out of the final pairing after making double bogey on the 18th on Saturday, got redemption on the closing stretch at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday. Trailing Fitzpatrick by one as they arrived at the 17th tee, Young bested the Englishman's tee shot by taking on the perilous back right hole location, feeding his ball down the slope to set up a 10-footer for birdie that sent the masses around the island green into a frenzy.
On the equally intimidating 18th tee, holding a share of the lead at 13 under, Young was able to wipe away the visual of his water ball on Saturday and piped a 375-yard drive that carried all of the danger and set him up with a wedge from 98 yards out.
After watching Young's majestic drive, Fitzpatrick finally blinked for seemingly the first time all day, flaring his tee shot right into the trees. That forced him to pitch out to just short of the green, and set the stage for Young to throw a wedge to the back edge of the green to leave a 15-foot putt back into the wind to win the tournament.
Young slid that putt by on the right side, but Fitzpatrick couldn't force a three-hole playoff -- likely to be played on Monday due to a storm on the horizon -- when he missed an 8-footer for par to give Young the biggest win of his young career.
After breaking through for his first PGA Tour win at the 2025 Wyndham Championship, Young carried his strong play into 2026 with a pair of top-10 finishes coming into this week. For a player whose career had been defined for years by close calls and falling just short with seven runner-up finishes, Sunday at The Players was a crowning achievement and an official stamp of Young's place among the game's top players.
Leaderboard breakdown
1. Cameron Young (-13): Young didn't have a share of the lead on Sunday until his birdie on No. 17, which meant that first jolt of nerves hit him on the 18th tee box at TPC Sawgrass, one of the most intimidating places on the PGA Tour. All he did was step up and pump a 375-yard bomb, happily riding an ever-increasing wind at his back to a divot-free zone on the right side of the fairway. His approach with a wedge, with a 22 mph wind at his back, was similarly impressive and probably deserved better than releasing to the back edge of the green, and while he couldn't pull off the win in the kind of style you dream of by pouring in the putt, Fitzpatrick helped him out by failing to scramble for par. Now Young has his second win and one of the most prized trophies in all of golf to seriously bolster his credentials as one of the game's elite. Oh, and a $4.5 million paycheck coming his way.
2. Matt Fitzpatrick (-12): Fitzpatrick looked like the man most likely to reel in Åberg all day and barely placed a foot wrong until the very end of the tournament. He'll rue two tee shots in particular. The first was a hooky miss off the 16th tee that put him in the trees and kept him from making a needed birdie on the par 5 to create some cushion. The second was the understandable blocky cut off the 18th -- especially with that pull on No. 16 fresh in his mind -- that kept him from having a chance to get to the back pin. Still, he continues to play extremely well in 2026 and if he keeps up this level of play, you'd expect him to take home a big trophy or two this season.
3. Xander Schauffele (-11): A late surge from Schauffele put him in the mix as he posted the clubhouse lead as the penultimate group arrived at No. 17, where there were no guarantees they wouldn't come back to him. Still, he just didn't produce enough on the weekend to capture the win that would truly signify he was fully back and will feel like this was an opportunity that slipped away given how Åberg came back to the field.
4. Robert MacIntyre (-10): MacIntyre got hot in the middle of his round and had it to 11 under with seven holes to play, and if he'd executed better down the stretch it could've been him capturing his biggest career win. Instead, he had two stumbles on Nos. 14 and 16, punctuated by a chip into the water on the par 5 that ended his Players dreams.
T5. Ludvig Åberg, Jacob Bridgeman, Sudarshan Yellamaraju (-9): It was another solid week for Bridgeman as he continues to prove his bonafides as a strong PGA Tour player in big events and a huge week for Sudarshan Yellamaraju in his rookie year, but we're going to focus on Åberg.
Holding a three-shot lead coming into the day, he handled the front nine nicely, even though he wasn't able to ever extend his lead beyond three shots. The putter wasn't doing him any favors, as his longest made putt of the day was just under 5 feet, but it was his refusal to part with his aggression on a course ready to punish the overly ambitious that cost him. A huge block with a fairway wood on the par-5 11th saw him lose his two-shot lead immediately with a bogey and a Fitzpatrick birdie ahead. Then, on the short par-4 12th, rather than trying to settle himself down, he pulled driver and tried to reach the green on the hole playing 372 yards and hit a snap hook into the water.
That was the decision he'll be asked about over and over, and while he may defend staying aggressive, there's a difference between aggression and poor planning. Rory McIlroy, who had nothing to lose, was the only player to find that green all day and leave a decent look at eagle -- which he missed from 10 feet. Åberg wasn't in a position where he needed to force anything after just making a bogey on the 11th, but he couldn't resist the allure of trying to chase getting that shot back immediately and fell straight into Pete Dye's trap at TPC Sawgrass.
There's no doubt that Åberg has the game to win big tournaments -- and win a lot of them. The question for him is whether he can learn how to play with that conservative aggression so many of the top pros talk about, rather than the reckless abandon he sometimes shows. He's now 1-for-4 in converting 54-hole leads into victories, and there's got to be some scar tissue building up.
Somewhat ironically, if he's looking for someone that can show what it looks like when it does click for a young, talented player who hasn't been able to close, it's the man who passed him for the win on Sunday.
