When the tournament is this good—the game’s best battling the field, each other, and their own fears and anxieties—who cares about its historic status? Just enjoy the ride. Cameron Young did it, beating Matt Fitzpatrick on a winner-take-all 18th hole, and Young is now the 2026 Players champion.
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Ludvig Åberg seemed ready to move up to the next level in his career, but TPC Sawgrass decided otherwise among the final nine. Xander Schauffele made a birdie charge too little, too late. But the final hours of the tournament belonged to Young and Fitzpatrick, who dodged Åberg’s fall to duel on the 18th green with the tournament on the line.
Young’s tournament-winning 15-foot birdie putt slid past the hole… but so did Fitzpatrick’s eight-foot par putt, and Young took advantage of the victory. Young finished at -14, one stroke ahead of Fitzpatrick, for the biggest win of his career to date.
After five players tied for the lead on Thursday, Åberg took control of the tournament with 29 front nines on Friday. He wouldn’t relinquish the lead until late Sunday afternoon…and when he did, he tossed it into the water next to the 12th hole at TPC Sawgrass.
Åberg had played so well for so long that, on Sunday, he was three shots ahead of the rest and just a few holes away from a coronation. Maybe he started looking too far ahead, maybe he even started to visualize what it would mean to be The Players Champion. And maybe he cursed himself.
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“I think a lot about winning. I think a lot about what it would be like, what it would feel like,” Åberg said Saturday night. “I’m trying to accept it… We spend a lot of time practicing, playing, training, preparing, so why wouldn’t we think about what it would really mean to win?”
Whatever the reason, Åberg’s round started to rock on the 11th hole and completely fell apart on the 12th. He found water on both holes, pulled away from them with a double bogey on his scorecard and suddenly found himself three shots off the lead.
As Åberg struggled, his Ryder Cup teammate Fitzpatrick found an extra gear. Fitzpatrick birdied the 12th and 13th to take a one-stroke lead.The Young-Fitzpatrick pairing, penultimate in the round, soon became the equivalent of the decisive singles match in a Ryder Cup: whoever beat the other would take the trophy. With shouts of “United States!” Ringing around Sawgrass’ iconic 17th hole, Young hit his tee shot to within 10 feet, a good 20 feet inside Fitzpatrick’s tee shot. Young drained the birdie while Fitzpatrick could only make par, and the two walked to the 18th tee all tied.
With all the momentum from both the gallery and the scoreboard, Young made a perfect 375-yard tee shot at the 18, while Fitzpatrick found the pine straw to the right side. They ended up face to face with the green one and Fitzpatrick blinked.
Sunday had its happiest moments. Sepp Straka made a birdie, but not the kind he would have liked:
And Kevin Roy’s tee shot on 12 found a hole, but not the one he wanted:
The two biggest names in the game (no coincidence that the two most recent defending champions) weren’t having as much fun. Both Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler had disappointing rounds throughout the tournament, and both had to sweat to get to the cut line on Friday afternoon. Scheffler finished the day at -5, while McIlroy, who just showed up at TPC Sawgrass on Wednesday after retiring last week, finished even.
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“Happy to get through four rounds and feel like my body held up well,” McIlroy said. “A couple of little things to work on, but overall, it wasn’t the week I wanted. I’m just trying to take the positives.”
For McIlroy, there weren’t many. For Cam Young, for TPC Sawgrass fans and for the PGA Tour, there were many.