Cameron Young’s 3-under back nine leads to second win – Round 4 of THE PLAYERS 2026

The 18th hole at TPC Sawgrass offers no shortage of negative stimuli for a recreational round, let alone the 72nd hole of THE PLAYERS Championship.

The yawning lake down the left side, the same one that scooped Cameron Young’s tee shot up the day prior, dominates the landscape. The bailout options down the right, with towering trees dotting a large bed of pine straw, offer minimal relief.

Having just brought the raucous crowd to its feet with his 10-foot birdie on the iconic 17th, Young had both the wind and the crowd at his back. As he stepped up to the shot that would go on to define the biggest win of his career, he meditated upon a singular thought.

“I’m going to hit the best shot of my life right here,” Young said.

Not all swing thoughts manifest into reality, but this one basically did.

Young uncorked a walloping 375-yard drive, the longest ever recorded on the hole in the ShotLink era and one that bent around the corner just like Pete Dye drew it up in his mind. The shot gave him an upper hand over Fitzpatrick, who missed right into the aforementioned trees and pine straw.

When the Englishman failed to convert an 8-foot par putt a few minutes later, Young needed just a tap-in par to secure THE PLAYERS title and the capstone win of his career at age 28.

It was a victory that seemed unlikely after Young rinsed his tee shot on No. 18 to close the third round, making a double bogey to drop three shots off the lead of Ludvig Åberg. It still seemed unlikely after Young made the turn at 10 under on Sunday, still three shots off the lead. But things can change quickly at TPC Sawgrass, where birdie and double bogey stand equally within reach, and after a number of close calls in big events and steeled by his experience at last year’s Ryder Cup, Young was in just the right position to emerge from the pack this time around.

“Today I felt like I did an incredible job of just hanging around,” Young said. “I haven’t been in that scenario, really. I’ve been chasing. I’ve had people shoot 65 on me. Today, I feel like it was a great mental test of just how much can you linger. How much can you keep yourself in the tournament and see what happens.”

0views
pga tour

Leave a Comment