Cameron Young’s Late Heroics Steal the Players Championship

The daunting, par-3 17th island green is arguably the most unique hole in golf. And it’s where dreams of winning a Players Championship are made—and broken.

In past years, there has been an abundance of indelible moments from soon-to-be champions of the PGA Tour’s flagship event: Rickie Fowler in 2015, Cam Smith in 2022, Calvin Peete in 1985, Rory McIlroy last year and, of course, Tiger Woods’s “better than most” putt in 2001, although that one came in Round 3.

Now, Cam Young can add his name to the list.

MORE: Final results, payouts from the Players Championship

Trailing playing partner Matt Fitzpatrick by one stroke heading to TPC Sawgrass’s penultimate hole, he needed to have his moment. So he plopped his tee shot with a 57-degree wedge left of the hole, using the slope to trickle it right, before settling 9 feet from the hole. He’d bury his birdie putt while Fitzpatrick two-putted from 31 feet.

“That wind was really difficult, downwind,” Young said. “I just so happened to have the best number you could have possibly asked for. I felt like if I hit just a full hard sand wedge it would carry that bunker by a yard or two, and trying to hit a softer gap wedge would have been a lot more difficult. So I was a bit fortunate to get a yardage that perfect on that tee today.”

Added Fitzpatrick: “I think that's what’s made 17 so difficult over the last few years, and obviously even the last there, with the amount of hospitality now, it makes the wind swirl a little bit. Obviously, [my shot] has just gone dead straight there and just run through.”

So, heading to the diabolical, par-4 18th, it was a tie ball game. And that’s where the tournament would be decided.

Riding the momentum from 17, with the crowd heavily supporting him, Young smashed his tee shot 375 yards, the longest drive of the tournament—and the furthest of the ShotLink era (since 2003). Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, leaked his tee shot to the right, with his ball landing in the pine straw. The Englishman then kicked out, leaving him 41 yards from the hole, while Young sat 98 yards out. Fitzpatrick hit his third shot to 8 feet, but would miss his par putt. And Young, knocking his approach to 14 feet, would safely par.

The Players champion he was.

Conquering the 17th!

Cameron Young’s birdie ties him for the lead heading to the final hole.

📺 NBC | @THEPLAYERS pic.twitter.com/iEXDPQ0mgk
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 15, 2026

“The nerves kicked in over the 8-inch putt on the last,” said Young, who shot a final-round 68 and finished at 13 under par. “That hole looked really, really small there from pretty close range. So happy to have finished it off, and just really excited to have played the way I did.”

This was supposed to be Ludvig Åberg’s day. He entered the final round with a two-stroke advantage, one that he kept through the front nine. But disaster struck on holes 11 and 12, shooting bogey-double. Then, a bogey on the 15th eliminated any hopes of snatching the victory.

“I definitely felt a little bit fast at times,” Åberg said after his 4-over 76 dropped him to T5. “I would imagine if I look at those swings on sort of 11, 12, they probably were quick swings. Takeaway got really fast and then the rest of it kind of spirals from there.”

Young began the day four strokes back of the lead, in the penultimate pairing, ahead of Åberg and Michael Thorbjornsen, who ultimately faltered with a final-round 77, finishing T22. Young could have made Sunday a little easier on himself, but on his final hole of Round 3, he splashed his drive, yet salvaged a double with a 9-foot putt.

A day later, as Åberg tumbled down the leaderboard in a flash, it seemed Young and Fitzpatrick, teammates on TGL’s New York Golf Club, were feeding off each other. Young started the back with a birdie and added another on the 13th. Fitzpatrick, who started the day one back of Young, played the front in 3 under and also matched Young’s birdies after making the turn. The 2022 U.S. Open champion, however, gave a stroke back, three-putting from 62 feet on the gnarly par-4 14th. Yet, Fitzpatrick, looking to become the first Englishman to win the Players, birdied the ensuing hole.

And one of Young’s most consensual shots down the stretch came on the par-5 16th. The world No. 13 plugged his approach in the bunker, 63 yards in front of the hole. Then, his out fell 46 feet from the cup en route to rescuing par.

That set up an opportunity for Young, one he seized.

It took the 28-year-old New Yorker 94 starts to claim his maiden Tour title, which came at the Wyndham Championship last August after seven career runner-ups.

Now, he followed that up with the biggest win of his life—and owns one of the par-3 17th’s coveted signature moments.

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