THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome the 2026 PLAYERS Champion, Cameron Young, to the interview room. Congratulations, Cameron.
CAMERON YOUNG: Thank you.
Q. An incredible day, overcoming what you overcame. If you could just take us through that incredible closing stretch there. What was the emotion like, especially with the birdie there on 17?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I mean, the stadium atmosphere out there is unbelievable. It's so loud on 17. The way everything is raised, you just know kind of all eyes are right there on you. So there's nowhere to hide, and I feel like I stepped up really well and hit a bunch of good shots those last couple holes, so I'm very proud of that.
THE MODERATOR: All right, we'll start with questions.
Q. Tell us what was going through your mind. You're standing on the green, doing all the stuff afterwards, your two boys are running out, your wife sitting with your daughter. I saw you pointing to the flag being raised. Was it all surreal? What was all that like for you?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, it is, for sure. I've dreamed of having that moment with them for a long time, and last year at the Wyndham Championship happened to be one of three weeks that they missed all year last year. So they were celebrating 2,500 miles away.
To get to see them after I went and did my interviews and stuff and got to actually, you know, give my boys a hug, see my wife, see my little girl, that's something I'll remember for a long time. Yeah, there's a lot going on out there. My kids are more interested in the drone than the trophy, which I think is a really nice bit of perspective on a day like today, but, yeah, really thankful to have them here.
Q. On 17, first of all, what club was it?
CAMERON YOUNG: 57-degree wedge, sand wedge.
Q. How hard is that shot under the circumstances?
CAMERON YOUNG: 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.
So I was a bit fortunate to get a yardage that perfect on that tee today. I mean, it could have been very difficult, and it was, but with the number that I had, I felt like it was just a shot that was much easier than it could have been.
Q. How would you describe how nervous you were?
CAMERON YOUNG: I was really, really good until I had to make the eight-inch putt on the last hole, and I just about fell apart. 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.
Q. Where would you put that drive on 18 in your career best of doing anything. And given what happened yesterday especially, and as kind of a follow to that, your perspective that you kind of showed yesterday after you put the ball in the water after what you felt was a good drive, how important was that as that moved toward today, if that makes any sense?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I did not drive it -- I drove it so well last week and I drove it so average this week. I felt like I never quite got in a rhythm. I never, you know, it just never was coming out the way that I meant it to.
And I finally hit a couple good ones on the back. Then yeah, the one on 18, I mean, 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. I don't know if I can think of one that's better.
So to do it, like you said, especially given what happened yesterday, I didn't make a bad swing yesterday, just there's a lot of wind and I missed by a yard. Yeah, it's a scary tee shot. To have hit that one in that moment, that's pretty good.
Q. Matt spoke about you guys' camaraderie, and even in TGL as well. How comfortable a pairing was that for you today, and how well did you guys' play feed into what you guys were feeling?
CAMERON YOUNG: He's a great guy. We've gotten to be around each other a decent bit through TGL, through our team, New York, and he is an excellent playing partner. He plays quick. He's a very polite, very kind guy and enjoyable to talk to when you get the odd moment to share a few words walking around out there.
So a very, very comfortable pairing for me, and I think you probably saw it with both of our golf. We had every right to both be nervous and found ourselves in some tricky spots, but I feel like for the both of us I think it was a comfortable one.
Q. After that tee shot on 18 it seemed like you almost smiled after that with your caddie joking more than you even did when you won. What were you guys kind of saying to each other?
CAMERON YOUNG: Man, what did we say? I have no idea. We were just saying stuff, I think, to just kind of quiet our own minds. In those moments there's a lot running through your head, and for me to have Kyle, one of my best friends, on the bag sitting there, it's a really nice time to have something a little bit lighter in terms of conversation.
I could have stared at my feet walking all the way down the fairway or we could have looked around and had a little bit of a laugh. I think in the moment option two was a good call.
Q. Could you describe how stressful it is trying to win on a course with this many booby traps?
CAMERON YOUNG: It's absolutely exhausting. This place has had my number the last few years. I've never really had a good finish here. And yeah, it is incredibly taxing. Every shot all day long you can get yourself into trouble. There's no easy ones. There's no givens. And you're going to make mistakes.
So it's a great test of will, a test of patience and obviously a test of hitting some good shots. So I feel like I did a lot of those things really well this week.
Q. On the 18th tee when you say that to yourself over the ball, do you do that a lot of times or that's just for special situations?
CAMERON YOUNG: No, honestly I don't know if I've ever had that thought before. And at the same time, I've never really been in that position at all. I've never been tied for the lead on the 18th tee. My only win was not close. I made the turn with a nine-shot lead or whatever at Wyndham and didn't have the slightest bit of nerves. There was no anxiety.
So there was no point during that back nine where I felt like I needed to hit, you know, a great shot or even really a good one, I just kind of had to get the ball forward. I haven't had really many moments like that, and yeah, like I said, first time that thought's really popped in my mind, and I think I did what I intended. It's one of the best shots I've ever hit in my life.
Q. The Ryder Cup experience, how do you think that tangibly helped you today?
CAMERON YOUNG: It definitely helps. It just provides you some kind of context for how you can perform and how you can think when you feel that way. Dealing with nerves is tricky. They make you -- your senses are kind of heightened. Typically I hit the ball a little farther, so it makes you capable of more, but if you kind of let them get in the way, obviously it can kind of be disastrous.
So it is a balancing act of, like, knowing that they're there and trying to use them to the best of your ability. I feel like I was definitely kind of low-level nervous the whole back nine and then certainly a bit nervous over the putts on 18.
It's sketchy back there; it's kind of on a crown and the greens are fast and there's a lot of wind blowing. Yeah, the Ryder Cup, looking back, I think is a huge just learning experience on how I personally deal with those nerves and what I can do when I do feel that way.
Q. Throughout the match you heard, notably on hole 17, you heard "USA" chants, especially when you sank that putt. How did you feel after hearing those chants? Also, you mentioned earlier that the Wyndham your kids weren't there to see you win. What's the difference between winning here with your kids as opposed to when you won Wyndham without them?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, the difference between the two is, it's huge for me. I mean, they're with me almost all the time. They travel week-to-week. That week I kind of did all of my media and took my pictures, and then my dad and I were on a flight out of there to get to Memphis and I was on the range in Memphis probably at 8:00 the next morning.
So tonight will be a little different. I think we're going to drive home tonight. I don't know if that plan has changed, but I'm ready to just, you know, sit down and get to eat some dinner with them and get home to sleep in my own bed tonight.
Q. You mentioned the conviction you had in yourself on 17 and 18. Obviously in the past few years you've had a lot of times in contention without leaving with a trophy. Were you able to lean on anything? I know you mentioned the Ryder Cup, but how did those past experiences help you kind of coming down the stretch?
CAMERON YOUNG: You know, I would love to say a ton, but like I said before, this is kind of new. I mean, that's really about the closest I've been to the lead with a couple holes left. There's maybe once or twice I've been within one. I wasn't thinking about any of those.
I kind of, I think if anything, it is just things I've learned over time and not necessarily from any one of those individual instances of being near the lead. I think we've made a lot of progress on my attitude and my approach to golf, and I feel like that is where I've improved and I think what allowed me to stay in it all day today.
There was certainly a point during the front nine where I -- I don't know if I was three or four back, and at that point if you get frustrated and make any decisions that aren't wise, you're going to kick yourself out of the tournament really fast. So I feel like it's more a matter of what I've learned over the course of the last year or two and not necessarily from those times being around the lead.
Q. Did you feel the support of everybody out there? Or did you feel like they were pulling for you or the flag, the United States flag that would get raised? And I guess on top of that, do you think it impacted the way you played?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, it's nice to be welcomed warmly like that. Any amount of support that I get out there I'll take. That's positive energy, and it brings nothing but positive thoughts to my mind. So very grateful to have had the support of the fans those last few holes.
Yeah, it does help. I don't think it's -- it's kind of a passive thing, but to be aware that you have so much support out there is really cool and, yeah, I mean, any reminder of that Ryder Cup -- obviously we didn't come out on the right side of it as a team, but I took a lot of positives from it. Anytime I'm reminded of that, it kind of takes me back to all the work we did to get there and the success that I feel like or the progress that I feel like I made during that tournament.
Q. I wonder how active you are with goal setting and how you balance the temptation of comparing where you are in your achievements versus where you feel like you maybe could have or should have been at any point in your career.
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, 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. My expectations are wildly unreasonable, so I think they're less so now. I think they have been wildly unreasonable.
This is a hard game, and there's a lot of people that are really good at it. Yeah, I'm not huge on setting goals. I've done it. I don't have like a list for this year or anything. My mind for the second half of last season was East Lake, Ryder Cup. My mind for the first part of this season is preparing for the Masters. So my goal is to be in contention as much as possible before that. This tournament certainly has a major feel; THE PLAYERS is an unbelievable event. I feel like if anything, I mean, it's its best possible prep you could ask for for our first major of the season.
Q. Both at the Ryder Cup and here you appear to be impassive and completely in control of yourself. Is that because you are, or is it because you're very good at fooling people?
CAMERON YOUNG: I think it's about 70 percent that I was. My expression doesn't tend to change that much, except for when I'm very upset. I feel like that's about the only thing you'll get out of me out there. I'm never going to be real smiley, never going to be, you know, kind of outwardly super positive.
Yeah, today it was mostly that I just was pretty under control. I feel like I kept really good control of my mind, made really good decisions, and it didn't have to work out that I won, but today it did.
Q. What do you do when you are angry?
CAMERON YOUNG: When I am angry? I just get mad at myself. You might see a frown. I don't know. Just generally I'm relatively even keel. But if I'm playing well, you're just going to see nothing. If I'm not making too many mistakes you're just not going to get much out of me.
Q. Including now or?
CAMERON YOUNG: Including now. Yeah.
Q. I think you said outside that you found yourself in a really good spot today and frankly all week. On a course that's been so vexing, why do you think that is or was?
CAMERON YOUNG: I feel like we had a really kind of refocusing after Riviera. I feel like my head wasn't in the best place. I still finished well at Riviera, but I felt like I had kind of missed the mark on what I was thinking about out there on the golf course and thinking about generally.
So coming to Bay Hill is very, very difficult. Coming here is very, very difficult. So it was a really good time to just say, look, I'm going to go through two weeks and focus entirely on my process and my execution and see what happens at the end of those two weeks. Trying very, very hard to let go of the outcome, to be very accepting of what happens and what you shoot.
It's kind of what you heard, you know, after my round yesterday, after I hit it in the water. It was a bummer. I didn't make a terrible swing, but it is what it is, and I had a putt for double bogey to make. It was just a really good time and a really good two weeks to take that mindset in, and I feel like that shift -- you know, obviously right now it appears that it is part of playing some good golf. So I'm looking forward to getting back to it in a couple weeks.
Q. You scratched my question already a little bit like a minute ago. I was wondering, why aren't you smiling all the time? I mean, you should be the happiest person in the world at the moment. Did it sink in already?
CAMERON YOUNG: No, I think honestly, I think 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.
So I just think it's more for me about I think that's the best way for me to play the best. Now why am I not happy? I am (laughing). I don't know. I'm thinking to answer questions and my brain is very tired after playing that golf course for four days. So 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.
Q. You said earlier this week that you're basically trying to build up to Augusta in a way that you can be comfortable going into a Sunday with the lead. Is this kind of what you envisioned, and when did you really start thinking about that specifically?
CAMERON YOUNG: That being our focus started in the fall because I felt like I did a really good job doing all of that for the Ryder Cup, and I needed a new thing to go to. After that there's kind of a letdown of like, you know, okay, all that's done, now what do I do. And the logical choice is the Masters. I mean, first major of the season.
But like I said, the atmosphere out there, the way that I felt feels very much like a major championship. I've been around the lead with a hole or two to go in a few majors, and it's the best prep that you could ask for. This place is plenty difficult. It's incredibly demanding mentally, and to have gotten through that and played the way that I did today is the best prep that I can ask for.
Q. What is your wildest goal that you have?
CAMERON YOUNG: Like I said, I don't have any specific ones. My goal is preparation for Augusta.
Q. But you said you did though, right?
CAMERON YOUNG: I have done it before, but I don't have any specific goals. My goal is to be prepared for to be playing late on Sunday at Augusta. 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.
Q. You mentioned on the front nine it could have gotten away from you, and in the past maybe it would have. What was that attitude adjustment that you had, was there anything you told yourself or that your caddie said to you that kept you in line today?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, what kept me going all week is honestly, I pretty much walk down the fairways looking at my feet asking myself where my feet were. If I could just focus on where I was, what I was doing without getting ahead or behind the present moment, I felt like I could continue to execute shots well enough to stay around.
In a lot of my high finishes on the PGA TOUR, I've been beaten. I've missed out winning a bunch of times by one or two, and today I felt like I did an incredible job of just hanging around and giving myself the opportunity to have, you know, Matt miss a seven- or eight-footer on the last hole to win the tournament. Like, I haven't been in that scenario really. I've been chasing. I've had people shoot 65 on me.
Today I feel like it was a great mental test just how much can you linger. How much can you keep yourself in the tournament and see what happens. Because like we've said, this course is very volatile; those last few holes anything can happen. Someone could go 3, 2, 3 and someone could go 6, 6, 7. So anything can happen. It was just a test of getting yourself to those last couple holes with a chance.
Q. To follow on something you said about the wildly unreasonable expectations you sometimes set for yourself, just curious what that stems from and why you think that's always been a challenge for you?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I think I'm just generally pretty hard on myself, and I think a lot of people that are good at what they do expect a lot of themselves. So I think that while it might not be the best thing for performing at your highest level, those expectations are also something that drives you to be good.
I kind of am starting to learn to maybe let go of them a little bit, and like I said, kind of just focus on where my feet are. But at the same time expecting a lot from myself in terms of preparation and commitment to my golf shots and commitment to my thought process. I think shifting where you have high expectations is for me maybe a more effective way to go about it.
Q. I wanted to ask you about Kyle. He started at Philly Cricket, right? At what point did you think he would be a really good fit on the bag, and how did that come about that finally it happened?
CAMERON YOUNG: I knew he would be before he started caddieing. He's a very good golfer in his own right. He's one of my closest friends. He's great at reading greens. He's got a great mind for golf. So I knew he would be a good fit before I hired him.
I mean, frankly I had thought about it for a while. But he was playing himself. He's very good golfer, and kind of it just coincided right at the time he kind of was maybe deciding he wanted to stop. I was looking for a change.
That first week was Philly Cricket Club where he grew up 45 minutes from there. So it was kind of an obvious, hey, come do this week, maybe do PGA and see what happens. After two weeks I said, hey, do you want to do the next four, and he's like, sure, I'm not really doing anything.
Since then he's grown a lot. I think he's learned very quickly and he's become a huge asset to me in a very short period of time. I don't know what our record is together over the last 21 or 22 events, but I feel like we've played pretty well. I think we keep getting better.
THE MODERATOR: All right everyone, Cameron Young, 2026 PLAYERS champion. Congratulations.
CAMERON YOUNG: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports