The field at the 2026 Players Championship is chasing Ludvig Åberg heading into the final round. The Swedish star who lives nearby in Ponte Vedra Beach enters the final day at 14 under par with a three-stroke lead over Cameron Young.
At least we hope this is the final day of the tournament. Thunderstorms are in the afternoon weather forecast, and golfers and fans alike hope this doesn’t turn into last year’s event when a lengthy rain delay forced Rory McIlroy and J.J. Spaun to come back Monday to decide the winner.
Åberg is eyeing his third PGA Tour victory in just his third trip to TPC Sawgrass. Young has never finished higher than 51st here. Michael Thorbjornsen rocketed up the leaderboard in Round 3 to get to 10 under, while Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland and more are hoping the leader slips up and gives them an opening.
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Cameron Young beats Matt Fitzpatrick, wins Players Championship
Matt Fitzpatrick was offline on his drive on No. 18, while Cameron Young had a picture-perfect approach, just missing the green on his second shot. His 15-foot putt missed just right, but Fitzpatrick wasn’t able to make his 9-foot par putt, letting Young tap in for his first Players title.
Players Championship playoff rules
If Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young end the final round tied for the lead, they will play a three-hole aggregate playoff to determine the winner of the 2026 Players Championship. They would play holes 16, 17 and 18.
Cameron Young tames island green with Ryder Cup feel
The atmosphere at the 17th was electric as leader Matt Fitzpatrick of England and Cameron Young approached the tee box. Young nailed a perfect shot that rolled slowly to within about 10 feet of the cup. The New York native walked onto the “island green” to chants of “USA! USA!” as the NBC broadcast team compared the feeling of the crowd to that of the Ryder Cup. His birdie putt pulled the two into a tie for the lead at 13 under.
Xander Schauffele closes Players Championship with flourish
Looking to break into position to steal the win at The Players, Xander Schauffele closed his final round with birdies on three of the final four holes. He drained his final putt from 20 feet out to close a 3-under day and get at 11 under for the tournament. He heads to the clubhouse alone in third place, two strokes behind leader Matt Fitzpatrick.
Sepp Straka ‘hits’ a bird on his way into the water
It was a punch and a prayer for Sepp Straka, who was in the pine straw for his second shot on the par-4 18th in the final round of the 2026 Players Championship. He tried to navigate the trees and get a low shot to cut back toward the green. It not only didn’t do that, but the ball bounced, struck a bird sitting along the edge of the water before both the ball and the bird tumbled into the drink.
He finished with a double bogey and completed his 72 holes at 8 under, well off the winning pace.
Cameron Young ties atop Players leaderboard
Matt Fitzpatrick’s time alone with the lead was short-lived as a three-putt on No. 14 put him back to 12 under. That pulled him even with Cameron Young, who has run off three birdies since his bogey on the sixth. The 28-year-old from New York has one career PGA Tour win, the 2025 Wyndham Championship, and has never finished higher than 51st at The Players.
Ludvig Aberg hits into water twice, Matt Fitzpatrick takes lead
With at least a share of the lead since midway through Round 2, Ludvig Åberg has fallen off the lead after a disastrous second shot on the par-5 11th. The Ponte Vedra Beach resident from Sweden sent his fairway shot well right of the green and into the water on the fly, setting up a bogey putt that, paired with Matt Fitzpatrick birdie on No. 12, pulled the two even atop the leaderboard.
It got worse for Åberg on the 12th when he sent his tee shot left of the bunker and back in the drink, leading to a double bogey and down to three shots behind the lead and tied for fourth. Fitzpatrick notched another birdie on the par-3 No. 13 to surge into the solo lead, a stroke ahead of Cameron Young. The Englishman is 5 under and bogey-free on the day.
Players Championship payout
The winner of the 2026 Players Championship gets $4.5 million, the biggest purse on the PGA Tour. The runner-up makes out pretty well too with $2.725 million.
Who is Sudarshan Yellamaraju? Making a run at Players Championship
Making his first appearance at The Players, 24-year-old Sudarshan Yellamaraju needed a run of three birdies at the end of the second round just to make the cut. The India native who moved to Canada when he was 4 turned in an impressive bogey-free Round 3, and he started hot again in the final round with birdies on three of the first four holes. Yellamaraju ran into trouble on the 18th, overshooting the green after birdies on Nos. 15-16, but his bogey still kept him in the race for at least a top-10 finish at 9 under.
Brooks Koepka wraps up return to The Players
Brooks Koepka nearly slipped all the way into missing the cut after a disastrous three-hole stretch on the back nine of Round 2, but the West Palm Beach native has turned in perhaps his best ever Players Championship thanks to back-to-back birdies on Nos. 15-16 in the final round. This was the five-time major champion’s fourth PGA Tour event since coming back from LIV Golf, tying for ninth at his hometown Cognizant Classic. He briefly broke into the top 10 but a double bogey on the 18th left him at 6 under for the tournament and into a tie for 16th.
Robert MacIntyre making a charge
Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, the runner-up at the 2025 U.S. Open, moved into third at 10 under with a birdie on the ninth, his second straight and fourth on the front nine today. MacIntyre sits a stroke behind Matt Fitzpatrick and three behind leader Ludvig Åberg as he look to improve on his ninth-place finish at the 2025 Players.
Players Championship weather forecast
AccuWeather predicted a 55% chance of rain with about a 40% chance of thunderstorms throughout the day, and it seems we might be approaching the start of the feared afternoon storms. The weather service says there’s about a 50% chance of rain over the next hour, with the bigger threat coming about 6 p.m. when the final pair should be just about done with their round. We’ll keep watching the skies.
Michael Thorbjornsen finds disaster with quad bogey
Ludvig Åberg is joined in the final pairing at The Players by an unlikely name, 24-year-old Michael Thorbjornsen. The Cleveland native and Stanford alum stormed into contention thanks to a 7-under 65 in the second round, then moved into second place in Round 3 with a 67 in his debut at TPC Sawgrass. Thorbjornsen tied for third at the Phoenix Open in February and comes in at No. 47 in the FedEx Cup standings.
His final round may have been undone on the fourth hole when he went from the rough into the water, then three-putting for the dreaded snowman 8 on the par-4. Thorbjornsen went from second into a tie for 11th six strokes behind Ludvig Åberg.
Matt Fitzpatrick eyes top of leaderboard
The 2022 U.S. Open champion is doing his best to put pressure on Ludvig Åberg in the final round at TPC Sawgrass. Matt Fitzpatrick has birdies on three of his first four holes to pull into a tie for second, still three strokes behind the leader. His last victory came at the 2023 RBC Heritage, and his best finish at The Players came in 2024 when he came in fifth.
Chad Ramey goes from hole-in-one to a tricky shot on 17 at TPC Sawgrass
We have an ace on the final day of The Players! Chad Ramey delivered the 41st hole-in-one in tournament history and the 14th ever at the 169-yard No. 13. The 33-year-old from Mississippi stuck his 7-iron tee shot onto the green and watched it journey to the left and finally trickle into the cup. His caddie was more excited than Ramey, throwing both arms into the air and giving the V for victory.
He ran into a tricky situation on the merciless 17th when his tee shot nearly fell into the water off the back of the green, but his ball held on just enough between the lip of the fringe and the plank that surrounds the island. After moving a cable out of the way, Ramey opted to try his luck and successfully chipped to safety. He gladly settled for a fortunate bogey 4.
Ranked No. 81 in the FedEx Cup standings, Ramey has one PGA Tour win to his name, the 2022 Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic.
Viktor Hovland chips in for eagle
Viktor Hovland had a tough lie on the second hole, but the hills didn’t seem to faze him. The 28-year-old from Norway stuck his chip perfectly and watched the ball roll neatly into the cup for an eagle 3, vaulting him into a tie for second three strokes behind Ludvig Åberg. He’s got two top-10 finishes at TPC Sawgrass with the best coming in a T3 in 2023.
Scottie Scheffler looks to climb leaderboard
The 2023 and 2024 Players champion just barely made the cut, but a bogey-free Round 3 put Scottie Scheffler in a position to potentially make a signature ascension on the final day at TPC Sawgrass. Coming in at 4 under par and nine strokes behind leader Ludvig Åberg, Scheffler’s run hit a major road bump on the par-4 fourth hole, when his second shot from the bunker veered left and into the water next to the green. He went on to miss his 20-foot bogey putt, after which he had a little fun with himself with a mocking fist pump, settling for a double-bogey 6.
Rory McIlroy finishes a frustrating Players Championship
The defending champion at TPC Sawgrass took himself out of contention pretty early in 2026. Rory McIlroy didn’t start his final round well either, going double bogey on the first hole after a mishit from a bunker off his drive and then three-putting. He did recover from there with four birdies over the next 11 holes, capped thanks to the above howitzer on No. 12. Unfortunately, he followed that up by hitting into the water on the par-3 13th, winding up with another double bogey and finishing the day with a 1-under 71 and finishing the tournament at even par.
He said his back felt better after withdrawing from last week’s tournament at Bay Hill, and he showed he’s still got the driver, but he still put up eight bogeys and the two doubles today against 12 birdies, five of which came in the final round.
Players Championship schedule and how to watch
Round 4: Sunday, March 15
Round 4 of The Players Championship 2026 will broadcast nationally on NBC starting at noon. Featured group and hole streaming from PGA Tour Live is available on the ESPN app (with a subscription to the Select plan) starting at 7:30 a.m.
Players Championship tee times
All times Eastern:
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Players Championship recap. Cameron Young outlasts Matt Fitzpatrick
Reporting by Dan Rorabaugh, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
