Young edges out Fitzpatrick for The Players as Aberg collapses on back nine
Cameron Young completed his journey from nearly man to superstar-in-waiting when he edged out Matt Fitzpatrick to win The Players by a shot at TPC Sawgrass.
The New Yorker (28) ended his long wait for a PGA Tour win last season when he put seven runner-up finishes behind him and won the Wyndham Championship in his 94th tour start.
He consolidated his season with a strong Ryder Cup performance as a rookie at Bethpage Black and took another massive step forward last night.
One behind Fitzpatrick with two to play, he finished birdie-par and closed with a four-under 68 to win the PGA Tour’s flagship event by one on 13-under par.
“It's something we've worked a ton on,” Young said of his unflappable demeanour down the stretch. “This week, going into it, you know it's going to be like that. You know, if the wind blows at all, this place is volatile, like you said.
“And I feel like we just kept ourselves in a really good spot. All day today, really, all week. The nerves kicked in over the eight-inch putt on the last. The hole looked really, really small there from pretty close range."
“So happy to have finished it off and just really excited to have played with the way I did.”
The former Wake Forest star went into the final round alone in third place, four shots behind Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg, who had a three-shot lead over American Michael Thorbjornsen.
But it turned out to be a day to forget for the leaders.
The Swede crashed to a 76 to finish joint fifth on nine-under as Thorbjornsen, unsettled by a quadruple bogey eight at the fourth, shot 77 to finish eight shots behind Young on five-under.
Young never lost sight of the leaders and kept in touch with a charging Fitzpatrick before edging him out at the death by rolling in a 10-footer for a two at the 17th to draw level before taking advantage of the longest drive of the day at the last to make a par four to the Englishman’s bogey to win the $4.5 million top prize.
For long periods, it looked as though Fitzpatrick would add a third PGA Tour win to his victories in the 2022 US Open and the 2023 RBC Heritage.
Overnight leader Aberg had a two-shot lead over the Sheffield man and Scot Robert MacIntyre as he made the turn in level par.
The first big turning point came early on the back nine when Aberg opened the door to the chasing pack when he carved his 268-yard approach to the par-five 11th into the lake and took six.
With Fitzpatrick making birdies at the 12th and 13th to go five under for the round, the Swede then compounded his error by hooking a driver into another lake at the 13th to run up double bogey six.
From two ahead, the Swede was now three behind Fitzpatrick, who led by a shot from Young and by two from MacIntyre on 13-under.
The Englishman three-putted the 14th to fall back into a tie for the lead with Young on 12-under.
But he edged in front again with a birdie from 12 feet at the 15th as Aberg’s hopes sank with another bogey at the 15th.
Young refused to go away and brushed in a 10-footer at the 17th to tie for the lead with Fitzpatrick on 13-under.
But Fitzpatrick drove into the pine straw right at the 18th, and after coming up short of the green in two, he watched Young lag to a few inches from the back fringe and then failed with an eight-footer for par to force a playoff.
“I felt like I probably hit, like, two bad shots the whole day, even the driver the last,” said Fitzpatrick, who won $2,725,000.
“I feel like I watched Cam’s get hit off the right with a bit of wind, and mine's just gone dead straight. And you know, that ends up being the difference.”
He added: “It’s obviously a tough one to take, how it ended, but obviously, you know the old cliche, lots of positives.”
Xander Schauffele shot 69 to finish third on 11-under with MacIntyre fourth on 10 under after a 69.
Rory McIlroy shot 71 to finish joint 46th ($72,126) on level par while Seamus Power’s 76 left him joint 70th ($50,750) on eight over.
