18 Parting Thoughts from the 2026 Players Championship

What a week of golf watching! Cameron Young was the last man standing after Ludvig Aberg couldn’t convert his 54-hole lead. There is so, so much to discuss. Without further ado, 18 Parting Thoughts from the 2026 Players Championship.

Cameron Young Is Finally Delivering On His All-World Potential

He’s always been a stop-you-in-your-tracks-on-the-range guy. The pause at the top, the raw power, the perfect balance. Cam Young’s been something of a Met Section cult hero ever since he shot 64 at Bethpage Black as a teenager. Then came a race through the Korn Ferry Tour and early success on the big tour, particularly in major championships: two top-three finishes in 2022, including a solo second at the 150th Open at St. Andrews. There were two more top 10s in 2023, too, before a slight dip in form. He became a pit of a punching bag on Golf Twitter: a guy with all the tools who just couldn’t get it in the house on Sundays.

No longer. He broke through majorly with his first win at the Wyndham Championship, then kept up the strong play through the playoffs to get a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup. His play that week engendered so much confidence in his captain that he sent him out first in singles when the U.S. desperately needed momentum and he delivered, holing a putt on the final hole for a 1-up victory over Justin Rose.

Now he’s a winner of the Crown Jewel of the PGA TOUR, and did so in macho fashion: a gutsy par on 16 after a fried-egg in the bunker, then a gutsy tee shot on 17 and a hearted 9-footer, and a 375-yard bomb down 18…only the job wasn’t finished. The pin on 18 was a nasty one, just over a ridge with trouble long, pumping 20 miles per hour downwind. It’s so easy to dump that one in the middle of the green—or to let the adrenaline get to you, add a little bit of speed at the bottom and go long. He swung with beautiful rhythm and took on the back pin, finishing just over the back edge but leaving a no-issues two putt. That left Matt Fitzpatrick with a putt to tie and it wouldn’t drop. A career trajectory-altering victory.

Ludvig Aberg has Bigger-Than-Golf Star Potential

You need to win on golf’s biggest stages to cross over into general-public knowledge. Playing your part in the Ryder Cup is not enough. Winning the Sanderson Farms or even the Genesis Invitational is not enough. It takes a statement, primetime win to elevate into that category.

We thought it was this week, especially as he hung tough through the front nine on Sunday and maintained a two-shot lead. Next came another episode of 2026 Florida-Swing Disaster—a mishit into the water on the par-5 11th followed by a pull hook into the drink again on 12. His chances were toast.

He still has major breakout star potential. Tall, handsome, a delightful comportment on the course , a refreshing pace of play, an aspirational golf swing. I thought he’d make this leap last year after that win at Torrey Pines, and I thought so today after 9 holes, but it wasn’t to be. Golf journeys are rarely linear. But as Scottie Scheffler reminded us this week—and we’ll get to that in a bit—media expectations run on a week-to-week cadence, but the players themselves have more patience. Even the ones who play really quickly.

Rory’s Back Injury Was Covered More Than Watergate

It’s an inevitable reality of a 24-hour channel dedicated to golf and only golf, but the wall-to-wall breathless coverage of Rory McIlroy’s tweaked back made me laugh this weekend. A lot. The three-piece suits on TV didn’t help matters. It was just entirely too serious. I have just received a text from a member of Rory McIlroy’s team…Rory will likely NOT play a practice round at the Players Championship…Rory has ARRIVED on site here at TPC Sawgrass.

I might be cutting off my nose to spite my face here—I, too, am part of the golf media—but we try to keep things light here in the Dan On Golf universe. There are, of course, stories that call for a certain tone. The Gary Woodland one, or even Ryan Fox having a kidney stone. But McIlroy dealing with a slight back tweak? C’mon. And it continued into his pre-tournament media availability on Wednesday.

Q. Are you in pain now just standing there?

RORY McILROY: No. No.

Q. Only when you swing?

RORY McILROY: I wouldn't even call it pain; I would say just more like sensitivity. It's not really on the site or like it's sort of more like the big -- like even just hitting balls there for a little bit, just feel like my muscles around the area just getting a little bit, like, fatigued. Right adductor started to cramp a little bit. But it's fine; it's expected. But more like sensitivity rather than pain.

Q. So if you do decide to play, obviously Harry has been out here doing great work for you, but how do you wrap your mind mentally around the fact that you now also have to play in THE PLAYERS Championship?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I've been playing here since 2009, so it's not like I don't know the place.

Q. How concerning is it that you could potentially aggravate it?

RORY McILROY: It's not. It's not structural, it's not joint, it's fine. It's purely muscular sort of discomfort and fatigue.

Translation: I’m fine guys. Calm the fuck down.

A Breakout Week for Sudarshan Yellamaraju

There’s always a breakout performance on big weeks. This week’s came from 24-year-old PGA TOUR rookie Sudarshan Yellamarju, who shot 66-68 on the weekend to finish T5 and take home a cool $925,000. His earnings on Tour heading into this week were around $358,000.

Yellamaraju’s path to the PGA TOUR is hardly a common one. Born in India, moved to Canada at age 4, never had a proper golf lesson. Learned the game on YouTube and honed it on a range in Onatario.

“I know I can compete and contend, and I have a lot of belief in myself, but that results-based confidence is something you can't match,” Yellamaraju said after the round. “Once you do something, you know you can do that or better. Obviously wherever I finish, I know I can do that, and then kind of move up from there.”

It’s fun to watch big-name stars win. It’s also fun to watch a player’s life change in front of our eyes.

We Got a Window Into Brian Rolapp’s Humility

Count me among the deceived. Walking into Brian Rolapp’s press conference, I sure-as-hell thought he’d declare the Players a major championship. Why, after all, would the tour launch the March Will Be Major campaign if it didn’t intend to put its thumb on the scale?

Quite the contrary. Rolapp began with an opening statement dripping in self-awareness.

“We take a lot of pride in THE PLAYERS,” Rolapp said, “and with all the major talk, some may say even too much pride. Ultimately, that is not for us to decide.”

Wow! The old PGA TOUR would have ignored public sentiment—which, to be clear, has been: The Players is an amazing tournament, but not a major—and made an eye-rolling declaration. It would have taken itself extremely seriously and gone for the heavy-handed approach. The PGA TOUR does not own the four majors or the Ryder Cup, an uncomfortable reality that surely irks leadership in Ponte Vedra Beach. But Rolapp is a pragmatic leader. He knows you can’t wave your hands and change minds.

That opening statement was a window into his humility as a leader—and his willingness to delegate. Let the marketing department do its thing. Drive up interest in the tournament and discussion around it. Mission accomplished.

With 120 Players and Cuts, The PGA Tour Is Done Reacting to LIV Golf

Another quote I loved from Rolapp: “the sports business is not that hard; just think like a fan, and 9.5 times out of 10, that’s probably the right answer.”

Yes, times a million. This is what made the TOUR's 2022 decision to create limited-field, no-cut events so puzzling. It was always a very transparent overreaction to LIV Golf. Their justifications, particularly for the no-cut, never held water. Fans want the stars around for the weekend. Do they? A few rebuttals: stars don’t really miss cuts. That’s why they’re stars. And the marginal benefit of being able to watch a Justin Thomas going through the motions after shooting 76-74 does not outweigh the narrative benefit of keeping the cut.

Yes, the cut is part of the magic of pro golf. The simple fact that Scottie Scheffler and the Last Man In The Field both start at even par, and if they don’t beat half the other guys over the first two days, they both leave with nothing. It’s a tournament within a tournament. The cut is a key differentiator from LIV. A serious competition. My guy Alan Shipnuck wrote beautifully about this for Skratch this week:

“It is a brutal repudiation, the equivalent of getting benched for the second half of a big game. But in this case, the player can’t blame a coach; the letdown is entirely of their own making.

‘“I just really love this tournament and, like, to not play the weekend would be gross,” said Keegan Bradley.

For Aaron Rai, the Friday grind had nothing to do with the decadence of the Players purse. “Personally speaking, it doesn't matter whether you're playing for $100,000 or 25 million, it's irrelevant,” said Rai. “You try to bring out your best every time you compete and when that doesn't happen, it stings. Missing the cut is just the hard truth that you didn’t perform. And I think 99% of guys will say the same no matter what they've done in the game.”

My favorite piece of news from Rolapp’s press conference was his pledge to move away from the 75-player, no-cut events. There are currently five no-cut, signature events on the PGA TOUR, so those five are going away. But equally important is the 120-player field size.

The PGA TOUR is officially done trying to compete with LIV Golf. They’re focused on their own product. And that product is best with 100-plus player fields and a cut. Good news for the fans. Good on ya’, Rolapp.

PGA TOUR U Might Be The Best Thing That Came From LIV Golf

If limited fields and no-cut events were the worst trickle-down from LIV Golf, the PGA TOUR University program might be the best. It never made much sense to not have a link between the collegiate ranks and the professional game—particularly in this arms-race era of college golf, where sub-70 scoring averages are a norm and so are $50 million facilities.

But necessity is the mother of invention, and the battle for young talent forced the PGA TOUR to incentivize the best college players to stay within the PGA TOUR ecosystem. The initial PGA TOUR U program only awarded the winner a Korn Ferry Tour card, but that changed in 2023. The first guy to go straight to the PGA TOUR: Ludvig Aberg. Without that boost, who knows if he makes the 2023 Ryder Cup. Who knows how his career develops. The second guy to go straight ot the PGA TOUR: Michael Thorbjornsen. The final pairing on Sunday in the PGA TOUR's flagship event: Ludvig Aberg and Michael Thorbjornsen. A full-circle moment.

Nobody Is Too Young for a Back Injury Anymore

More back issues on tour, from not-old guys. Justin Thomas missed the first chunk of the season after a microdiscectomy procedure in the fall. Rory McIlroy had to withdraw from Bay Hill with a back injury. So did Jake Knapp. And this week saw Collin Morikawa, all of 29 years old, fresh off a big victory and leading the FedEx Cup, withdraw after tweaking his back during a practice swing.

Back injuries are nothing new in golf, but it sure seems like they’re happening to young guys more often. (Will Zalatoris comes to mind). Perhaps it’s a coincidence, or maybe it’s a product of the modern golf swing and the game’s emphasis on speed. Either way, you hate to see it.

“It’s the worst thing ever,” is how Collin put it.

TPC Sawgrass Is the Epitome of Tournament Golf Venues

TPC Sawgrass was created with big-time tournament golf in mind, and it is the ultimate venue for the best players on the planet.

“Place is amazing,” says Patrick Rodgers. “It’s kicked my butt my whole career and I still love it. You have to be good at everything to play well.”

The colors pop on television. Sharp lines. Disaster lurking everywhere. Bulkheads bordering water hazards. The Spanish moss on the trees. The variety in each and every hole. The crescendo on 16-17-18, perhaps the best finish in world golf. There are 66s out there but plenty of 76s, too.

And it might be even better in person. The “Stadium” in the name is not just a name; the areas off the fairways are typically elevated, which gives fans a clear view of the action. Jacksonville turns out big-time for the event every year. It’s easy to get to and easy to get around once you’re there. There simply isn’t a better venue for a professional golf tournament.

Angsty Scottie Is a Fun Scottie to Watch, Too

Surely we can retire the whole Scottie Scheffler is boring narrative. He was capital-A Angsty this week. Turns out the man takes tremendous pride in his accomplishments and doesn’t take kindly to suggestions that he’s lost a step after a few so-so tournaments.

The edge first showed itself during his Tuesday press conference.

Q. Curious, I know from speaking to you over the years you like to keep things pretty simple, but I'm curious, when you have such a sustained run of success, how you do manage your expectations and whatnot? Obviously this season probably hasn't gone as well as you would like to get going, but how do you, what's the trick to keep from forcing it, getting frustrated, whatever, when you've had the run of success you had?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think that's kind of a funny question, because if you flipped my season around and it was like, okay, I finished -- what did I finish last week? Like 24th or something. 24th and 12th, and like 3rd and 4th, and a win. Would your question be the same if I was coming from 3rd, 4th, win?

Q. No, I understand.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, so that's my point is, it's like your expectations of me are living week by week.

Then he was fist-pumping missed putts during a very pedestrian opening-round 73. He dropped his club multiple times in frustration on Friday—he struggled mightily with his ball striking the first few days and his approach play has, on the whole this year, dropped significantly from the standard he’s set—and looked at one point in danger of missing the cut. Then he bounced back with a five-under 67 on Saturday and you’d think, better mood, right?

Nope. Not when he was asked about what he fixed.

Q. Was there anything you found in that range session late on Thursday? You spent a couple hours working.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Did I find anything? I think that would imply that I was lost, which is not the case. No, I think I'm always just trying to get a feel for where things are at, and sometimes a little practice helps, and sometimes a little rest helps.

I love it. He’s pushing back on the hyperbolic day-to-day cycle of a media center. It’s one of the reasons I almost never stay at golf tournaments once they start anymore: would you interview a player after the first, second and third quarter of a basketball game? They don’t want to talk to the press after their rounds. They want to recover before they go back to work.

We’re Reminded Yet Again That Golfers Hit the Shots

Adam Schenk had Paul Tesori on the bag this week. Tesori has caddied on tour for decades and is widely considered one of the best caddies in the game. He was on Webb Simpson’s bag when he won the 2018 Players Championship. As far as caddies for this week go, you couldn’t do much better than Tesori.

Joel Dahmen had Geno Bonnalie back on the bag this week. One of his best friends, and the guy who’d looped for him for the vast majority of his professional career. Surely a reunion would put a little pep in his step.

And yet…Adam Schenk missed the cut this week. He hasn’t been playing great this season and his looper didn’t make the difference. Joel Dahmen missed it, too. For all the talk of caddies in recent years, it’s a reminder that the players hit the golf shots, and it doesn’t matter how good a caddie you are if your player can’t hit a green with a 7 iron.

I’m Into What They’ve Done With the 6th Tee Shot

The overhanging tree on the 6th hole continues to be a delight. A real-life version of the Stinger hole on TGL. I’d love to see more courses adopt this sort of outside-the-box obstacle. The modern professional is better than ever, and with the golf ball rollback still two years away at best, forcing players to fit their shot through a certain window feels like a pretty innovative way to challenge them. I’m not saying we should do that rather than roll the golf ball back. Just a move in the interim.

A New Nickname for Jordan Spieth: The Screenshot Golfer

Jordan Spieth is the screenshot golfer. I’d describe his modern game as a bit ratchet. He’ll rip off five birdies in a row and then he’ll double bogey a par 5 on his last hole of the day. That’s precisely what he did on Friday, when he looked on the verge of contention only to flame out with a double and shoot 76 on Friday. And yes, there was a screenshot involved. There’s always a screenshot involved.

I just want to see him play a 72-hole tournament without a screenshot involved. It’s been years. He did, however, offer a classic response to a question on whether he’d be able to look past his double-bogey finish on Friday.

“Never. Have you ever played golf?”

He’s got some Korean company in the screenshot department: Si Woo Kim. He’s one of my favorite characters on tour. In related news: I’m always drawn to out-there characters. Si Woo has picked up smoking in life because, in his own words, he’s “too stressed.” He tries to hide his habit best he can but he was caught dart-handed in the trees during a long wait on Saturday.

And I’m pretty damn sure he was watching his beloved Manchester United during his Sunday warmup. One of a kind.

The 9-Wood Is the New 7-Wood

The 9-wood is the new 7-wood. The 7 became all the rage on tour a few years ago, quickly finding its way into the bags of Matt Fitzpatrick, Dustin Johnson and sundry others. These high-number woods used to be the domain of geriatric golfers but no longer.

Related, from Ryan Barath: Three Reasons To Play An Adjustable, High-Lofted Fairway Wood

Case in point: the ultimate flusher, Tommy Fleetwood, has a 9-wood in his bag. He likes the height he’s able to get from it. It’s only a matter of time until a professional golfer games an 11-wood. A sentence that, a decade ago, would draw ridicule.

I’m All For #Fashion But Please Tuck Your Shirt In, Matthias Schmid

Matthias Schmid doesn’t like to tuck his shirt in. It’s nothing new; a quick scroll of Getty Images yields photos of him un-tucking it in Hawaii this year. But he got a lot of TV coverage on Thursday and you almost have to respect the DGAFness. Almost being the key word there.

If you’re playing professional golf on TV, you tuck your shirt in. I’m all for guys pushing the boundaries with their attire. Love what Jason Day does, for example. But there are certain parameters that you stay within, and one of them is tucking your damn shirt in.

I reached out to the PGA TOUR and turns out tucking in your shirt is actually part of the player guidelines, and I was told it’s been addressed with Schmid. But then he didn’t do it again on Saturday. Come on, dawg.

The New On-The-Range Feature Was a Nice Touch

When the Masters does something, you know the rest of golf will follow suit a few years later. Augusta pioneered the every-shot-on-the-range coverage and now it has made its way to the Players Championship. Proper Golf Sickos now can get data from not just the course, but all the shots hit before and after the 18 holes. It produced some cool data to dive through. Shoutout to Hutch_Golf here.

One thing Rolapp made clear is he wants every PGA TOUR event to be as big as the Players. That means iconic courses, increased coverage, and more technology. That’s what the fan wants.

It’s Make-or-Break Time for a Few Notable Players

We’re through 3 signature events and The Players, so it feels like a fair time to put a few guys officially on Struggle Bus watch.

J.J. Spaun leads the list. This was always going to be an interesting year—he was a journeyman pro who morphed into a major champion before our eyes, and you never quite know which standard is the norm.

Ben Griffin had a similar glow-up last year with three victories, a Ryder Cup appearance (and his wedding). When we had him on the show at Pebble Beach, he admitted that his expectations of himself have changed. A T15 finish doesn’t hit the same way it used to. And yet his best finish this year was a T19 against a so-so field at the Sony Open. He missed the cut this week.

Michael Kim made over $4.1 million on the PGA TOUR last year, just missed the TOUR Championship (he was the first man out), won in Europe and got to world No. 35. His results so far this year: T31-CUT-T18-72nd (out of 78) at Pebble Beach-T33-CUT.

Max Homa continues to spin the wheels, to work his ass off, to do all the right things…with middling results. The results so far: T27-CUT-T66-T37-T13-XX. The battle continues.

Then there’s Shane Lowry, who had one hand on the Cognizant Classic trophy a few weeks ago and blew a chance to win the Dubai Invitational in January. That brutal, brutal scene at PGA National was always going to be tough to recover from. He said he wanted so desperately to win that week because his 4-year-old daughter was in attendance, and he’d never won in front of her, and he absolutely choked. He missed the cut at Bay Hill and had a decent opening-round going on Thursday at Sawgrass until a quadruple-bogey on 18 led to a missed cut. Sigh.

Elsewhere In the World of Golf

A brief look around the world of golf outside of Ponte Vedra Beach:

Bryson DeChambeau won LIV Singapore after Canadian Richard T. Lee, who qualified through the Promotions event, bricked a 3-footer in the playoff. There was a viral clip bouncing around of Bryson hitting a ball amidst a swarm of birds and then falling into a bunker, and the internet quickly contrasted that fan-less scene with the electricity at TPC Sawgrass. The undertone: he’d rather be at The Players. I have no doubt that’s true for a lot of guys on LIV. I genuinely don’t think Bryson gives a shit.

The best junior in the country, Miles Russell (headed to Florida State), won the prestigious Sage Valley Junior Invitational with a 15-under total, good for a three-shot win over the consensus No. 2 junior. Tyler Watts (headed to Tennessee). In third place: Mason Howell (headed to Georgia), the reigning U.S. Amateur champion. Charlie Woods shot 26-over to finish last in the field.

Hannah Green won her second tournament in March with a two-shot triumph at the Australian Open in Adelaide, becoming the first Australian to her national open since Karrie Webb in 2014.

That’s about it. No LPGA, DP World Tour or Korn Ferry Tour event.