feature-image

Imago

feature-image

Imago

Cameron Young was 4 strokes behind the leader, Ludvig Aberg, at the end of Round 3 at the $25 million event, the Players Championship 2026. Yet, he won the event and took home a $4.5 million paycheck. And it was all possible because of a single mistake made by one of the steadiest hands on the PGA Tour. If it were not for that, Young would have had to play a playoff round, and who knows what would have happened then. Now, he has opened up about one thing that made it a mistake.

Watch What’s Trending Now!

“He had been in full control, too. There was no part of me that expected him to make a mistake. He had played great, and he’s not shy in a moment like that. I mean, he’s won a US Open. He won trying to think Hilton Head in the playoff a couple of years ago, hitting something to a foot. He’s a guy that you’re not necessarily wanting to play against in a situation like that,” Cameron Young said about Matt Fitzpatrick on Fore Play Podcast Plus.

ADVERTISEMENT

“He’s really good and doesn’t back down from a moment like that. So, we weren’t expecting him to make a mistake, but obviously, when he hits it, hits it solid, and the ball’s going a long way, and it was too far right, kind of not off the club face. But once it didn’t turn, we knew it was going through. So it was kind of surprising to watch.”

golf trivia

This Should Be an Easy One, Right?

01/10

On Which Hole Jordan Spieth’s Ball Got Stuck Under a Trashcan?

article-image

Imago

Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick both rose to contention during the final round at the Players Championship 2026. Young was 4 strokes behind, and Fitzpatrick was 5 strokes behind Ludvig Aberg. Fitzpatrick, especially, was 5-under on the final day when he was through hole 15.

ADVERTISEMENT

He was driving exceptionally well throughout the day, and his putting was also good. The 2x PGA Tour winner was ranked 2nd in driving distance and T5 in driving accuracy in Round 4. But despite the consistent play, he made a huge mistake on the final 18th green.

ADVERTISEMENT

Young, on the other hand, was 1-stroke behind the Englishman until hole 17. However, Fitzpatrick finished on par while the Players Championship 2026 winner hit a birdie on hole 17. Young described it as a game-on moment for the title.

Then, on the 18th, Fitzpatrick hit a bogey, and Young finished on par to win the event. The American professional didn’t expect him to make such a mistake. He said that the Englishman is usually money under pressure. He won the US Open 2022 by defeating Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris by a single stroke. Thus, he is accustomed to such pressure.

ADVERTISEMENT

Although unexpected, Fitzpatrick’s mistake allowed Young to win without having to go through the playoff rounds. The Englishman later said that he felt he hit a good drive, but once out of position, it becomes challenging to finish on par at TPC Sawgrass. Young realized the 2023 RBC Heritage winner’s mistake when he saw that his putt shot didn’t turn towards the hole.

Fitzpatrick made that mistake and accepted the loss. But one lingering question that remains is whether the partisan treatment at the Players Championship affected his shot.

ADVERTISEMENT

Matt Fitzpatrick’s blunt question to Cameron Young after the partisan treatment

On the 18th fairway on Sunday, March 15, 2026, the crowd at TPC Sawgrass grew very loud. They were clearly favoring Cameron Young over Fitzpatrick. That’s when the Englishman asked a blunt question to the American professional.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Do you hate me too?” Fitzpatrick asked the American pro.

When discussing this with Brandel Chamblee, Young said that the question surprised him. Replying to that, he said that the two play on the same TGL team and are friends. Both of them play for New York GC in TGL.

The intensity of the partisan was such that Young was shocked, too. One could only wonder if it was this that got into Matt Fitzpatrick, who ended up making the blunder after all.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Share this with a friend:

Link Copied!

ADVERTISEMENT

Written by

author-image

Kailash Bhimji Vaviya

876 Articles

Kailash Vaviya is a Golf Journalist at EssentiallySports, covering both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. His reporting spans major championship contention, player performance, and the ongoing tensions between the two circuits, from the financial pressures LIV players face to the tour politics shaping where careers go. He has followed golf closely since his college years, and that long-running familiarity informs how he covers the game, placing week-to-week results within the bigger structural stories around them. Before joining EssentiallySports, Kailash wrote for Comic Book Resources (CBR) and Forbes, where he developed a research-driven approach to sports and media reporting. He brings that same attention to accuracy and structure to his golf work, with particular depth on the business and political side of the professional game alongside the competitive storylines that define each tournament week.

Know more

Edited by

editor-image

Shreya Singh

ADVERTISEMENT