After six Players Championships and dozens of other Sunday afternoons at golf’s major events, I’ve developed a completely unscientific opinion about TPC Sawgrass’ famed Island Green 17th.
If you’re hunting at night on a Sunday and you’re shooting from the side of the flagstick for a Sunday pin, good things happen.
Cameron Young’s performance in the closing stages of the Players Championship on Sunday should be praised – he parred 16 while holed from 50 yards to the 18th after hitting the longest drive in that hole’s history – but it was his shot on 17 that I thought revealed the most about him. With Young’s tournament hopes hanging on a birdie on the hole, he moved on to a more formidable shot at Sawgrass and brought the seed right to the flagstick. He was awarded a 10-footer for birdie putt, which sent the crowd into a frenzy and tipped the balance of the tournament in his favor.
My theoretical intent on the 17th has less to do with strategy than gumption, and can be summed up in the following sentence: You can’t be bothered playing TPC Sawgrass smartly. If you want to win on Sunday, you need: 1. birds 2. risk tolerance and 3. guts. The type of golfers who succeed in that type of environment are those who look at the course and the competition as something to be feared but as something to be challenged. After getting the biggest win of his life on Sunday, Young summed it up well.
The timing of the Cam Young Players tournament was not very good
By:
James Colgan
“The way everything is lifted, you just know all eyes are on you,” Young said. “There’s nowhere to hide, and I feel like I got up really well and hit a lot of good shots on those last few holes, so I’m proud of that.”
After a week on the ground at Sawgrass, it seems only fitting to start today’s stock report with a character who stared fear in the face and won: New.
Players Championship 2026 stock report
Cam Young: Stock UP
It seemed likely that Cam Young would enter the same stage as the Players Championship. Young’s usual competitive nature got a big shot in the arm with a dominant performance at the Ryder Cup in September, and players often carry their form into the Cup in subsequent years. Scottie Scheffler turned a spectacular Ryder Cup in 2021 into four years as the world’s best golfer; Max Homa turned a spectacular Ryder Cup in ’23 into a T2 at the Masters the following April; Justin Rose turned his performances in ’23 and ’25 into three more years at the top of the game in the twilight of his career; and now Cameron Young joins the club with a career-defining win for the Players that comes a few months after a fan-favorite week in Bethpage.
Collin Morikawa: Stock DOWN
It’s hard to be WDing on your second hole of a golf tournament. But the nature of Morikawa’s WD and the fact that it happened before seemed like a red flag to me, even if the injury itself is less serious than a pulled muscle. Here’s hoping you get well soon.
Ludvig Aberg: Stock UP
This may sound absurd considering how Aberg exploded into contention on Sunday after entering the day with three shots, but I actually thought Ludwig’s gameplan was admirable. He played with anger. He attacked the flags. He stayed on top of the attack. In the end, his head was not there, and his performance was interrupted. It happens. No one is writing the final text on Aberg’s career after that performance on Sunday, and I would even argue that his frankness about the problems he has encountered could help him overcome them sooner rather than later.
For now, the stock is stagnant. But maybe it’s better if this isn’t a theme.
Scottie Scheffler: HOLD ON
Nothing I’ve seen in the past week has led me to believe that the latest Blip of the World No. In fact, if I were to bet on the most likely outcome of the next six weeks of my life, it would include seeing Scheffler walk into the Butler Cabin on Sunday evening in a few weeks as the new Masters winner.
BUT … Scheffler looks as frustrated with his golf game as we’ve seen him in a long time. It’s almost as if his standards rise with all of ours. I thought it would be interesting to hear Justin Thomas examine the Scheffler driver and iron woes at Sawgrass.
“No, just say it [something is off],” said Thomas.
Of course, time is a huge factor in a fluid swing and run like Scheffler – but Thomas didn’t seem too concerned about realizing that.
“He’s still hitting shots that most people in the world can hit in the same round,” Thomas said. “Just golf. He’s been hitting it where he wants for about two or three years. He’s having a great year. I know I would trade him.”
If Thomas isn’t worried about it, I’m not.
Matt Fitzpatrick: Stock UP
I’d buy all the Matt Fitzpatrick stock I could right now – not just because of the way he entered the Players Championship and came within an inch of his life of winning the championship, but also because of his candor in talking to the media about … negative fan attitudes as the championship draws to a close.
I don’t think the fans decided the tournament. And I don’t think they’re bullying Fitz. But I respect the hell out of a golfer who is willing to shoot straight after failing in the heat of battle. It shows something about his competitive nature – perhaps an acknowledgment that competitions are won and lost by very small margins and sometimes the result of randomness – which will serve him well the next time he reaches this place.
Justin Thomas: Stock UP
Speaking of Thomas, the players were a reminder of how much fun golf is when he’s in contention. Thomas is one of the most passionate voices on Tour, and his game is an old-school combination of shots and misses. After the surgery cost him the better part of six months, he will need some time to get his gut back. But if he stops getting “spacey” in the course? However, the Tour will be happy to have him.
Jordan Spieth: STAY AWAY
As your Certified Golf Analyst (CGA), it’s my honest duty to shoot straight – and here I am shooting straight: I’m not sure I can advise you to buy any stock in Jordan Spieth right now … because I’m not sure I understand what’s going on with him myself. On Friday afternoon, Spieth looked like a classic, talking about “weird golf” and playing amazing shots from the trees and generally showing the kind of hot golf that makes his game so exciting and completely addictive. After it was done, Spieth even admitted to the media that “really, indeed close” to the kind of golf he’s spent the past decade trying to recapture. For a second, I believed it! But I saw him struggling to stay on par the Sunday after the Saturday 76 that knocked him out of the championship, and I wondered if those visions were magic.
If you check which direction this is, you are probably wrong. Buy or sell at will!
Xander Schauffele: BUY
Thank god PGA Tour events are 72 holes, because if the last we saw of Schauffele was his disastrous third round at TPC Sawgrass, we might legitimately worry about the rest of his season. Thankfully, Schauffele had a record-setting Sunday – and that’s what he did, shooting three under and birdies on each of the last three holes to claim the clubhouse lead and eventually finish alone in third.
One of the things I admire about Schauffele is his mental toughness. He never seems to get too high or too low, even when the wheels fall off or the biggest competition is within his reach. He needed all those competitive juices Sunday at Sawgrass, and it was enough to set an upward arrow toward Augusta.
Brooks Koepka: Stock UP
The winner of the quietest Top 15 at Sawgrass by the widest margin? Brooks Koepka, who shot 6 under for the week finished T13. Perhaps the most impressive of Koepka’s performances was his effort on the 17th, where he found the ball in the open on all four days of the tournament for the first time in his career.
I find that T13 without making noise is not really something that excites me too much … but if he hunts on Sunday at Augusta in a few weeks, something tells me that we will be looking at this result differently.
