{"id":478223,"date":"2026-03-16T07:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T07:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478223\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T07:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T07:10:11","slug":"cameron-young-holds-off-matt-fitzpatrick-on-final-hole-to-win-players-championship-pga-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478223\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameron Young holds off Matt Fitzpatrick on final hole to win Players Championship | PGA Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

The PGA Tour<\/a> might have lost out in the court of public opinion over whether the Players Championship could be a major. However, the level of drama as shadows lengthened on this Sawgrass Sunday set the tournament aside from most others.<\/p>\n

It came down to Cameron Young versus Matt Fitzpatrick. As Fitzpatrick agonisingly missed for par on the 72nd hole, Young had secured the biggest win of his career. He had emerged triumphant from a sporting thriller.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick will rue the 18th hole. He had taken a double bogey there on Saturday. As his tee shot in round four sprayed right and into pine straw, the Yorkshireman was in trouble again. Young had battered his drive 375 yards down the fairway. It was an advantage the New Yorker was unwilling to waste.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick will take little consolation from the fact he was in the depths of despair when missing the Players cut in 2025. A year on the Englishman was part of another painful scenario. The only point in which Young led this tournament was the final hole on the final day. Talk about impeccable timing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nerves kicked in over an eight-inch putt on the last,\u201d Young admitted. \u201cThe hole looked really small at that point.\u201d Not so at the iconic 17th, which Young birdied three days in a row.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick shrugged off American crowd support for Young, having been part of the European Ryder Cup team who were heckled at Bethpage last year. \u201cThat was literally child\u2019s play compared to Bethpage,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cIf they think that that was anything, then they need to reassess. Get yourself up to New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how it is. It probably wouldn\u2019t be the same because we\u2019re a little bit more polite in Europe, I would say, but I would hope it would be of similar intensity in Europe. I knew it was coming. I had it with Jordan Spieth in 2023. It\u2019s funny to me. I find it hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ludvig \u00c5berg\u2019s lead, three shots at the start of play, looked perfectly solid until the Swede found water on the 11th and 12th. \u00c5berg collapsed to a dismal 76, including a back nine of 40. It may take some time for \u00c5berg to recover from this. On three successive PGA Tour Sundays, there has been late trauma for golfers apparently close to victory. With wind whipping, Sawgrass was especially fiendish.<\/p>\n

As \u00c5berg stumbled, it was Fitzpatrick who initially forged into the lead. His trouble was Young played the treacherous final six holes in two under. Robert MacIntyre was also a key part of the equation before finding water with his third shot at the 16th. Fourth place was still a fine return for the Scot. Xander Schauffele birdied the last to take third, two shots shy of Young\u2019s 13 under par.<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy\u2019s even par aggregate was sufficient for a place just inside the top 50. McIlroy is still to decide whether to play again before his Masters defence gets under way at Augusta National in early April. \u201cI\u2019ll see how my body feels,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how I feel in practice and at home. If I get itchy feet at home maybe I will add an event.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PGA Tour might have lost out in the court of public opinion over whether the Players Championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-478223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}