Young wants to be ready for big moments, and he delivered at Players

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Cameron Young had given up on his own expectations, and for good reason. Seeing him pose with The Players Championship trophy makes it easy to forget that he once tied a PGA Tour record with seven runner-up finishes — all of them in a 30-month span — before winning. His Sunday stroke average for those silver medals was 67.5. Someone was always a little bit better. Young missed winning two majors by a whisker his rookie year in 2022. He made double bogey from a bunker on the 16th hole in the PGA Championship and finished one shot out of a playoff. "One of those times I'm going to shoot 5 under on the back and that's going to be good enough," he said that day at Southern Hills. Two months later he shot 5 under on the back nine at St. Andrews. Cameron Smith shot 30 and beat him by one. But the 28-year-old New Yorker had big expectations for his biggest moment at The Players. Young was tied for the lead with Matt Fitzpatrick on the fearsome 18th tee at the TPC Sawgrass, the entire left side of the fairway framed by water he had found only the day before. Young had 18 holes to recover from that shot, no room for error on this one. "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. "I don't know if I can think of one that's better." Tiger Woods had his "better than most" putt on the island-green 17th in 2001. Young had his "longer than anyone" moment on the 18th on Sunday with a 375-yard drive that will become part of Players Championship lore. It was a surprising admission from Young, who keeps so much under wraps. The beard is reminiscent of Dustin Johnson, the emotional flatline of David Duval. "First time that thought's really popped in my mind," Young said. "And I think I did what I intended. It's one of the best shots I've ever hit in my life." It was only his second PGA Tour victory, but the body of work — seven runner-up finishes, three top 5s in the majors, a big performance in the Ryder Cup — would suggest more is to come. How much more? That might require setting goals, and Young has been down that road before. "I'm kind of trying to give up on that, in terms of looking at where I am versus where I think I should be in my career," Young said, adding that his expectations used to be "wildly unreasonable" without sharing what they were. "This is a hard game," he said, "and there's a lot of people that are really good at it." There are players to chase, like Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, and there are players running alongside him. All of them are highly skilled. Eight of the 10 winners on the PGA Tour this year are in their 20s, two of them (Scheffler and Collin Morikawa) already multiple major champions. Chris Gotterup (26) wasn't on anyone's radar until he left Rutgers for Oklahoma as a senior and won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the best player in college. Gotterup now has four wins, three of them in the last eight months. Jacob Bridgeman (26) made it to the Tour Championship last year despite not playing in half of the majors and half of the signature events. He looked strong winning at Riviera, and he was right back in the mix at The Players until a couple of shots found the water. Gotterup, Young and Bridgeman have compiled more world ranking points in 2026 than anyone. It's fair to assume big stuff is on the horizon for them. For Young, there are goals and there are expectations, and there is a difference. He set a big goal a year ago to play in the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, where he won a New York State Open. He dreamed of being on that U.S. team the day it was announced when he was a junior high school. Fast forward to 2025 and Young was No. 67 in the world with four months left to qualify. He had gone 11 starts since his last top 10 and had missed six cuts during that stretch. That's when he hired his Wake Forest teammate Kyle Sterbinsky to caddie for two weeks, which turned into two months, which turned into a job. Sterbinsky has a knack for reading greens. "I knew he would be a good fit before I hired him," Young said. The goal was not to win or live up to his expectations. It was to get to East Lake for the Tour Championship, his only hope of Ryder Cup consideration. He managed to do both. The goal this year wasn't about winning. It was about having enough chances so he would be ready if the situation presented itself at the Masters. This is more discipline than wild expectations. "My goal is to be prepared for playing late on Sunday at Augusta," Young said. "It's not necessarily to win, it's not to do any certain number of things. It's to be ready and comfortable when that moment comes." One big moment already arrived, and he was ready for it. ___ On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf