Young rallies to win The Players Championship

Cameron Young delivered the biggest birdie of his career on the most notorious hole on the TPC Sawgrass, a sand wedge to 10 feet to tie for the lead in The Players Championship. And then he was even better on a shot equally daunting.

Young finally won a big title to go with his major talent on an electric stage with pressure at every turn. He produced the goods on the final two holes — the birdie on the wind-blown island-green 17th, and a 375-yard drive down the 18th that set up a one-shot victory Sunday. “It’s so loud on 17. You just know, kind of all eyes are right there on you, so there’s nowhere to hide,” Young said. “And I feel like I stepped up really well and hit a bunch of good shots those last couple holes, so I’m very proud of that.”

Most impressive was the previous day on the 18th hole, his drive ended with a splash and a double bogey. There was no margin for error this time, tied for the lead with Matt Fitzpatrick. Young picked out his line and had one final thought: “I’m going to hit the best shot of my life right here.”

He had never had a thought like that because he had never been in this position before. But he couldn’t think of a better shot he ever hit. Moments later, Fitzpatrick failed to save par from the trees when he missed an 8-foot putt. Young tapped in for par and a 4-under 68. “The nerves kicked in over the 8-inch putt on the last,” Young said. “That hole looked really, really small there from pretty close range.”

It was only his second victory on the PGA Tour. He tied the tour record with seven runner-up finishes before finally winning late last summer in the Wyndham Championship. But this is the PGA Tour’s crown jewel, loosely known as the fifth major, on a Stadium Course that taxes brains and more than not breaks hearts.

It was like that for Ludvig Aberg, who had a three-shot lead going into the final round and was still in control until he imploded on the back nine with shots into the water on consecutive holes. He shot 40 on the final nine for a 76 and tied for fifth.

And it felt that way for Fitzpatrick, who thought he nailed his drive on the 18th only to see it run through the fairway and into the pine straw. He pitched out to the front of the green, pitched beautifully to 8 feet and missed the putt to force a playoff. He closed with a 68.

“I felt like I hit a good drive,” Fitzpatrick said. “And once you’re out of position, it’s difficult to make your par.”

Young finished at 13-under 275 and earned $4.5 million with a victory that moves him to No. 4 in the world. His objective early in the year was to get into contention as often as possible to prepare for the Masters, and he did better than that.

Fitzpatrick was the first to seize on Aberg’s collapse, hitting a wedge to tap-in range for birdie on the 12th and a tee shot to 4 feet for birdie on the 13th. Young matched the great tee shot on the 13th for birdie to stay one behind, and it was a duel from there.

Young felt that mixture of nerves and confidence, a lesson learned from his Ryder Cup debut last fall at Bethpage Black in his native New York. There were a few chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” as he played with Fitzpatrick of England when it became clear the winner would come from that group.

“That was literally child’s play compared to Bethpage,” Fitzpatrick said about the crowd. “If they think that that was anything, then they need to reassess. Get yourself up to New York.”

Fitzpatrick three-putted from 60 feet on the 14th to lose the lead, and he regained it with a 12-foot birdie on the 15th. The closing two holes belonged to Young on a course where he had not finished in the top 50 in four previous tries.

“This place has had my number the last few years,” Young said. “And yeah, it is incredibly taxing. Every shot all day long you can get yourself into trouble. There are no easy ones. There’s no givens. And you’re going to make mistakes. So it’s a great test of will, a test of patience and obviously a test of hitting some good shots.

“So I feel like I did a lot of those things really well this week.”

Xander Schauffele birdied three of his last four holes, including a 20-foot birdie on the 18th, to close with a 69 and finish third, one shot ahead of Robert MacIntyre (69).

MacIntyre watched a chip from deep rough on the 16th roll across the entire green and into the water. Sepp Straka (71) had two double bogeys on the last five holes, including the 18th, when his shot out of the woods bounced off a cormorant sitting on the wood-framed edge.

Aberg, however, was the real shocker.

He was still two shots ahead and in the middle of the fairway on the par-5 11th when he flared one out to the right and into the water, leading to bogey. On his next tee shot, he pulled that badly into the water, hit over the green and took three to get down for double bogey.

That put him three behind, and he never recovered.

“I would have loved to be standing where Cameron is standing right now,” Aberg said. “It definitely stings a little bit.”