After 63 holes of THE PLAYERS Championship, local Swedish star, Ludvig Aberg, had a strong grip on the tournament. His three eagles matched the most by a player in a single PLAYERS, and he was looking to become the second Swede to win the title.
He was paired with Michael Thorbjornsen, whose last name sounds Swedish, but he’s from Massachusetts.
The duo played so well for the first three rounds that it looked like it one of them was surely going to win. Then came the nerves of the final round and playing the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course with final round nerves.
Aberg held his lead through the first nine holes, but he began to struggle after that. Balls in the water on the 11th and 12th holes proved to be his demise. Thorbjornsen struggled before that. No one knows what happens to golfers when that kind of thing happens, but it’s not uncommon until they learn to overcome it. Eventually, the really great ones do.
Meanwhile, Xander Schauffele, who won the PGA and the British Open in 2024, lefthander Robert MacIntyre, past U.S. Open champ Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young, who had many seconds before winning his first tournament last season, took advantage.
Fitzpatrick and Young took the lead after Aberg’s misfortunes at the 12th. Then, they battled back and forth the rest of the way with neither one giving in to the other. At the 17th, they both hit very good shots, and to the delight of the fans, both made birdie.
“The stadium atmosphere out there is unbelievable,” Young said. “It's so loud on 17. The way everything is raised, you just know kind of all eyes are right there on you. So, there's nowhere to hide.”
They went to the 18th tied. Many drives had landed in the water or in the pine straw under the trees.
“My thought process over that ball is, one, making sure that I’m committed to my line, and two, the overarching thought is I’m going to hit the best shot of my life right here,” Young said about his mental approach before hitting the final tee shot.
The drive went 375 yards and was a bullet. It was also the longest in the Shotlink era, which means the longest since electronic measuring began. It definitely gave him an advantage.
“It’s one of the best shots I’ve ever hit in my life,” Young admitted later.
He called the course absolutely exhausting.
“Every shot all day long you can get yourself into trouble,” he added. “So, it’s a great test of will, a test of patience and obviously a test of hitting some good shots.”
Anyone of any level who has played the course understands what he means. His goal for the day was to stay “where his feet were.” In other words, he was trying to stay in the moment and pay attention to what he was doing then. It’s something Scottie Scheffler has said on occasion and something other athletes have said.
“If I could just focus on where I was, what I was doing without getting ahead or behind the present moment, I felt like I could continue to execute shots well enough to stay around,” he explained.
He called TPC Sawgrass a mental test just how much he could linger.
“This course is very volatile. Those last few holes, anything can happen,” Young said. “Someone could go 3, 2, 3 and someone could go 6, 6, 7. So anything can happen. It was just a test of getting yourself to those last couple holes with a chance.”
Cameron Young proved to be a worthy champion who “stayed where his feet were” and got his chance on the last couples of holes.
