March 18, 2026

Welcome to the eighteenth edition of The Tee Sheet - your weekly read on what matters in the world of golf right now. We’ve been away for a stretch, but we’re back, and the timing couldn’t be better.

TPC Sawgrass just delivered one of the best Sundays of the season - and the game has a new name to reckon with at the top.

Cameron Young is your 2026 Players Champion.

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Let’s dive in!

Note: Rising / Falling includes biggest movers in the OWGR Top 150

Tourney Recap

After three days at TPC Sawgrass, Ludvig Åberg looked like he had it in the bag.

The 26-year-old Swede opened with a clean 69, then fired a 63 on Friday - nine under, two eagles, 29 on the front, and one of the best rounds seen on the Stadium Course in years - to take a two-shot lead over Xander Schauffele at 12 under. Saturday brought a 71 and a three-shot cushion heading into Sunday, with Michael Thorbjornsen in the final group and Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick lurking four and five back respectively after Young made double on 18 Saturday night to drop to -9.

Then Sunday happened. Åberg's held steady on the front, but the back told a different story. He bogeyed 11, then on the short par-4 12th - playing 372 yards - pulled driver, put it in the water, and made double. Two holes, three shots gone, lead evaporated. Thorbjornsen, who had never played The Players before this week, ran out of answers too and eventually finished at -5. Young and Fitzpatrick (also TGL teammates) were paired together in the penultimate group and had been quietly building all day, suddenly finding themselves in control of their own destiny.

They arrived at the island green 17th tied for the lead. Young stuck his tee shot inside ten feet and made the birdie. Fitzpatrick parred. On 18, Young uncorked a 375-yard drive - the longest on that hole in the ShotLink era (and what he called the shot of his life). Fitzpatrick found the pine straw, punched out short of the green, and missed his eventual par putt. Young tapped in at -13 for par, winner by one.

Schauffele closed with a 69 to finish third at -11, and Robert MacIntyre was fourth at -10, but neither really threatened the leaders down the stretch. Rookie Sudarshan Yellamaraju quietly posted -9 for a T5 in only his first Players - a name to remember and keep on the radar (24 years old, played on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Canada, skipped college).

The win is Young's second on Tour (after grabbing the Wyndham last season) and comes on the back of an excellent Ryder Cup debut at Bethpage. With exemptions in the next three editions of all four majors, Tour membership through 2031, 750 FedExCup points, and a jump to No. 4 in the world - Cam Young heads to Augusta in three weeks as a Players champion.

He's no longer just a name to watch. He's arrived.

The Florida Swing ends this week, and with it comes the last real tune-up before Augusta.

The 2026 Valspar Championship at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort is on deck, with a ~$9 million purse and 500 FedExCup points on the line - modest compared to the Signature Events, but the timing makes it more interesting. Three weeks from now the world's best will walk down Magnolia Lane at Augusta, and form earned at Copperhead this week has a way of carrying.

The course itself is worth knowing. Designed by Larry Packard and established in 1972, Copperhead plays 7,352 yards at par 71 - the exact same yardage as TPC Sawgrass.

Winning scores have crept higher in recent years, with the last three champions finishing between -10 and -12 - a far cry from the low-scoring 2021 and 2022 editions when Sam Burns lapped the field twice at -17 (although Burns is absent from the field this year). The course finishes with the Snake Pit, a brutal par-4, par-3, par-4 closing trio that has ended more than a few title runs and makes for an awesome final stretch.

For what it’s worth, only one player in the history of this event has won at Copperhead and then won the Masters the same season: Jordan Spieth, in 2015. He tees it up again Thursday.

Last year Viktor Hovland walked into Innisbrook having missed three straight cuts including an opening-round 80 at The Players, genuinely unsure if his game was functional. He left a champion, with birdies on 16 and 17 through the Snake Pit to overtake Justin Thomas down the stretch for a -11 victory - one of the closer wins in recent memory. He's back to defend with JT in the mix as well.

Disclaimer: The picks and predictions in The Tee Sheet are for informational and entertainment purposes only.

🏆Bryson Wins in Singapore

🔄 The PGA Tour’s New Boss Laid Out His Vision

The Tee Sheet took a few months away for a refresh (check out our new website - theteesheet.io, but we're back.

The Players just delivered one of the best Sundays of the season. The PGA Tour's new leadership is laying out the most ambitious restructuring the game has seen in years. And three weeks from now, the best players on the planet walk down Magnolia Lane.

This is the stretch of the golf calendar that separates the seasons worth remembering from the ones that blur together. Cameron Young just announced himself on a massive stage. Rory is managing a back injury heading into a Masters title defense. Scheffler is up and down. The Valspar is this week, and Copperhead has a way of telling you things about a player's game that Augusta will later confirm.

We've got a lot of ground to cover and we're not wasting any more time.

Thanks again for reading - and see you next week.