Cameron Young’s startling admission: Terror over 1-foot winner

Cameron Young’s post-Players press conference was an unexpected delight. Young has always been more interesting than he’s presented outwardly — there’s humor and perspective hiding beneath the beard — but even by those standards, this was a terrific showing. The glow of victory combined with the exhaustion of four days at TPC Sawgrass was an effective combination: Young was honest, direct, thoughtful, insightful. He even grinned a couple times.

I appreciated his forthrightness on several topics, including the specific challenge of executing under the gun down the stretch at one of the hardest, most chaotic finishes in golf.

One example: Just how hard was that tee shot at No. 17? Young offered two interesting details.

“You know, it is really hard. That wind was really difficult, downwind. I just so happened to have the best number you could have possibly asked for. I felt like if I hit just a full hard sand wedge it would carry that bunker by a yard or two, and trying to hit a softer gap wedge would have been a lot more difficult.”

It shows a certain humility when a winner has the self-awareness to credit good fortune for helping him get across the line.

Another admission: Young gave himself a pep talk before his tee shot at No. 18, tied for the lead with Matt Fitzpatrick, with death to the left and trouble to the right.

“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.”

Sure enough, he pummeled driver 375 yards down the right-center fairway — the longest drive in the recorded history of TPC Sawgrass’ 18th. (Downwind, yes. Still!) Preposterous.

So, is that a pep talk he gives himself often?

“No, honestly I don’t know if I’ve ever had that thought before,” he said. If he’s in a similar situation, I’d recommend he try it.

Young’s most vulnerable admission was perhaps his most interesting. After his playing partner — and only remaining competitor — Matthew Fitzpatrick missed his par putt at No. 18, Young suddenly had a one-foot putt to win. And he felt something sudden: sheer terror.

Just how nervous was he?

“I was really, really good until I had to make the eight-inch putt on the last hole, and I just about fell apart,” Young said. ShotLink recorded the final putt at 16 inches; we’ll split the difference and call it about a foot. Young struggled to put his ball down after re-marking it.

“I couldn’t get my line to point anywhere near the hole, and I went and hit it anyway, which maybe I shouldn’t have. But it went in, so all is well,” he said.

Pros have talked about this before, how short putts are the nerviest shot in golf because there’s no good outcome; everyone assumes you’ll make it and it’d be a disaster if you didn’t. Plenty of pros have missed remarkably short putts in similar circumstances. Young would have had company. Still, it showed a certain self-assuredness that Young was willing to admit his fear.

And now all is well indeed. Young is golf’s newest Players Champion, the owner of 4.5 million U.S. dollars, first-time entrant to the top 10 in the world ranking (and first time into the top five, if my math checks out — we’ll see on Monday morning) and certified winner. His future on Tour is secure, at least until the PGA Tour reshapes its future; he’s exempt on Tour through 2031 and he’s exempt into all four majors for the next three years. A year ago this time Young was outside the top 50 in the world. He’s ascendant, in every sense of the word.

One more admission, then: Why doesn’t Young look happier — when he’s playing or even when he’s winning? I wasn’t crazy about this question but I appreciated Young’s answer.

“I think, honestly, if you asked my wife, she would say ‘he’s a very, very happy person.’ And I am. I mean, I love my life, I love my family, I love my job. I couldn’t ask for much more. I’m healthy. I have healthy little children.”

I enjoyed Young’s perspective there — and his honesty in the answer that followed. I often wonder whether athletes in press conferences find their brains wandering, or racing, and end up saying things they only sort of mean. Young seemed intentional about saying things he did mean. And up front about how exhausting it was to do so.

“Now why am I not happy [right now]? I am,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know. I’m thinking to answer questions and my brain is very tired after playing that golf course for four days. It takes a lot for me to come up with a reasonable answer. But yeah, I don’t know. I think just generally you’re not going to get a ton out of me, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not, you know, very, very happy to be sitting here with this.”

He gestured at the trophy beside him.

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