Cam Young Wins The 2026 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass

What a Sunday at TPC Sawgrass. This day was truly special and will go down as one of the most exciting Sundays in a long time.

I will be honest, when I turned on the broadcast I thought Ludvig would cruise to a boring and steady win. Let me take you back to where it all started to unravel.

He finishes hole 1 looking comfortable, then birdies 2, and at that point, it genuinely felt like autopilot mode. Thorbjonsen collapses, makes an 8, and his day is over in the blink of an eye. Now all eyes are on the stud from Sweden

Ludvig bogeys 4, but it is hard to panic about that when he just birdied 2. He still seems very much in control.

Ludvig did a good job of resetting and rattled off six pars in a row. During this stretch, Cam Young and Max Fitzpatrick were one group ahead and starting to play better and better. You could tell they were feeding off one another, hunting down Aberg. I am not sure how else to describe it except it just felt different. The momentum had completely shifted, and at that point Max Fitzpatrick was the best player on the golf course.

So when did the wheels actually come off? Let me paint a picture for you on hole 11.

Aberg pipes one dead center of the fairway and has about 265 yards into a par 5 with the wind gusting like crazy. I think he felt like he had to give himself a birdie look, but honestly, there was a real case for laying up and making birdie the old-fashioned way.

He pulls the 7 wood and hits one off the toe, way up high. The wind absolutely ate it alive and it found the water. He missed the green on the drop and just like that he makes 6. To his credit he did not look rattled at all, which is one of the biggest reasons I believe he will be a top 5 player in the world for a long time.

But then comes the decision that really nailed his own coffin. He pulls driver on an extremely tight fairway on 12, yanks a hook into the water, and makes double. Ludvig's day is over, and now all eyes are on the group ahead.

As all of this is happening, Max Fitzpatrick and Cam Young have both surpassed Aberg on the leaderboard. Fitz is at 13 under and Young at 12 under. It stays that way for a couple of holes as they trade blows.

Then hole 17 starts looming, and Cam Young has a history of being one of the best players ever on that hole specifically on tour. He steps up and hits a perfect ball that trickles right down to the flag. Sinks the putt with a little high step that sends a very clear message to Fitzpatrick. Birdie 18, or we are going to a playoff.

I want to highlight the walk from 17 to 18 for Fitzpatrick. There were loads of people chanting USA and really giving it to him, almost like a Ryder Cup atmosphere. In his press conference he said it was child's play compared to Bethpage, but I still think it was something he did not fully expect in a tournament setting like this. During the broadcast you could see he was hearing every bit of it, and smiling. But when we talk about momentum, Cam Young had all of it.

Young steps up on 18 and proceeds to hit the longest drive in ShotLink history. A 375 yard bullet that leaves him a flip wedge in. Fitzpatrick takes the safer line and his ball does not draw. He finds the pine straw and is going to have to punch out into the collection area in front of the green. To his credit the fans were right on top of him and absolutely vicious at that point. He executed the punch out and left himself a decent look to get up and down.

Cam Young on the other hand hits a wedge that I thought was going to end up a foot away. Unfortunately it did not spin and settled around 10 feet. Fitzpatrick hits a decent chip but still leaves himself 8 feet for par. Young putts his third to about 6 inches. Fitzpatrick now knows he has to make it to send it to a playoff. He pushes it right, and Cam Young taps in to win his second PGA Tour event.

I am beyond happy for Cameron Young. He has a quiet swagger that you simply cannot deny. He has been very open about working with Brett Macnabb as his new mental performance coach this year, and also put his former college teammate on the bag as his caddy. Brett made the comment that they were using this event to get ready for the Masters, specifically focusing on executing shots under immense pressure and operating inside his own bubble. Looked like he truly found something today and now knows he can execute in the biggest moments.

Cam, congrats brotha. You deserve this. Carry that momentum straight to Georgia.

Enjoy the Fairway Times? Click the subscribe button to receive a free Mental Performance Golf Guide that will have you shooting lower scores in no time. Click the link below!

SUBSCRIBE