With two holes to play at the 2026 Players Championship, Cameron Young trailed Matt Fitzpatrick by one stroke. What happened next will be talked about for years: Young stepped onto the iconic 17th island green at TPC Sawgrass, stiffed his approach to nine and a half feet, and calmly rolled in the birdie putt to tie for the lead. Then, on the treacherous par-4 18th, he unleashed a 375-yard drive — the longest recorded at that hole in the ShotLink era — set up a routine two-putt for par, and watched as Fitzpatrick's drive drifted into the pine straw, leading to a bogey that sealed Young's victory at 13-under par.
It was the biggest win of his career. Bigger than the Wyndham Championship seven months earlier. Bigger than his star turn at the 2025 Ryder Cup. And while the monster drive on 18 will fill the highlight reels, the shot that actually won the tournament was a putting stroke — a smooth, confident nine-and-a-half-footer on the most pressure-packed green in golf. So the question every serious golfer should be asking isn't how far does Cam Young hit it. It's: how does Cameron Young putt?
From Seven Runner-Ups to a Players Champion
To understand how Young putts today, you need to understand the journey that brought him here. Born in Scarborough, New York, Young grew up at Sleepy Hollow Country Club, where his father David Young served as head professional. Golf wasn't just a hobby in the Young household — it was the family language.
David's coaching philosophy was famously light-touch. He focused on getting the basics right — grip, posture, alignment — and let young Cam's natural athleticism do the rest. That approach produced one of the most powerful swings on the PGA Tour, with clubhead speeds regularly exceeding 123 mph. But for years, Young's putting couldn't keep up with his ball-striking.
Between 2022 and mid-2025, Young amassed seven runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour without a single victory — more second-place finishes without a win than any Tour player in the previous four decades. The knock on him was always the same: elite tee-to-green, but he couldn't close with the putter. That narrative changed dramatically in 2025, and the transformation started with a single equipment decision.
The Putter Switch That Changed Everything
Cameron Young has played a Scotty Cameron Phantom mallet putter for his entire PGA Tour career. But within that family, he's been constantly fine-tuning — testing different head shapes, neck configurations, and balance profiles to find the setup that matches his natural stroke.
The breakthrough came at the 2025 RBC Heritage when Young switched from a plumber's neck to a jet neck within his Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.5R head shape. The change was designed to give him more "toe flow" — the feeling that the putter toe releases naturally through the stroke rather than staying face-balanced.
Want the full equipment specs — head shape, hosel, weight, grip details? See our companion post: Cameron Young's Putter: Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.5 Tour Prototype Specs.
"I've just grown to like the way that [Phantom mallets] look," Young told the PGA Tour. "I look at a blade now and I have more trouble lining it up."
Scotty Cameron Tour Rep Brad Cloke explained the evolution: "He's always wanted to feel flow in the putter. We've started in face-balanced mallets for him and we've kind of worked our way down to a point where he's felt comfortable enough to feel the toe flow the way he wants it and get the release of the putter that he wants."
The results were immediate and dramatic. In 2025, Young posted the best putting season of his career:
- 7th on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting (+0.642 per round)
- T-6th in Putting Average (1.704 putts per hole)
- 4th in One-Putt Percentage (44.57%)
Those numbers are staggering. To put them in perspective, gaining 0.642 strokes per round on the greens means Young was roughly 2.5 strokes better per tournament than the average PGA Tour player — just from putting. Over a season, that's the difference between winning and missing cuts.
Inside Cameron Young's Putting Setup
Let's break down exactly what Young puts in his hands when he steps onto the green:
The Putter: Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.5 Tour Prototype
The Phantom 9.5 is a mid-sized mallet with a few key design features that suit Young's stroke:
- Jet neck configuration: This provides more toe flow than a face-balanced setup, allowing the putter to arc naturally on the backstroke and follow-through. It suits players who have a slight arc in their stroke rather than a straight-back-straight-through motion.
- Tour Prototype finish: A raw, unpolished look that reduces glare and gives Young a clean visual at address.
- Mid-sized mallet profile: Larger than a blade for stability and higher MOI (moment of inertia), but smaller than the oversized mallets some players favor. This gives Young forgiveness on off-center hits without feeling unwieldy.
- SuperStroke Zenergy Pistol 1.0 grip: A pistol-shaped grip with No Taper Technology and an Enhanced SPYNE ridge along the underside, providing a tactile face-squareness cue and consistent grip pressure across both hands.
The Ball: Titleist Pro V1 Left Dot
Young plays the Titleist Pro V1 Left Dot — a previously tour-only model engineered for elite swing speeds. On the greens, the Pro V1's urethane cover provides soft feel and consistent spin off the putter face. The Left Dot variant spins slightly less than the standard Pro V1, which helps with distance control on fast greens like TPC Sawgrass's Bermuda overseeded with bentgrass.
How Cameron Young Reads Greens
Young's green-reading approach is methodical but efficient. Like many modern Tour players, he combines traditional visual reading with a systematic process:
- Walk the full line: Young walks from his ball to the hole, feeling the slope through his feet and taking a wide view of the terrain around the green.
- Read from behind the ball: He crouches behind his ball to visualize the line, paying particular attention to the fall line — the steepest slope running through the hole.
- Read from the low side: On breaking putts, Young frequently walks to the low side of the putt to confirm the break direction and severity.
- Commit to a spot: Rather than aiming at the hole on breaking putts, Young picks a specific spot on his intended line — what putting coaches call the "apex" of the putt — and commits to rolling the ball over that point.
This process is visible in his pre-putt routine. Watch Young on any broadcast and you'll notice he doesn't rush. He takes one or two practice strokes focused on feeling the correct speed, then addresses the ball and pulls the trigger. The entire routine takes roughly 20 to 25 seconds — deliberate but not slow.
The Practice Habits That Built a Champion Putter
Young's father David instilled a practice philosophy centered on fundamentals and repetition. While David is best known for developing Cam's powerful swing — using training grips on his driver and 7-iron as a kid to ingrain a neutral hold — the same principles applied to putting.
1. Speed Control Above All
If there's one theme that runs through Young's putting improvement, it's speed control. Tour players consistently say that distance control matters more than line on the vast majority of putts, and Young's 2025 numbers — particularly his elite one-putt percentage — suggest he's dialed in his pace.
How do you work on speed control? The ladder drill is a Tour staple that Young and many professionals use: putt to a series of targets at increasing distances (10 feet, 15 feet, 20 feet, 25 feet), with each ball needing to finish past the previous one but within three feet. It's a drill you can practice at home on a quality putting mat with built-in distance markings.
2. The Gate Drill for Stroke Path
With his arcing stroke (matching that jet-neck putter), Young needs his putter face to return square to the target at impact even as the club travels on a slight arc. The gate drill — placing two tees just wider than the putter head a few inches in front of the ball — is a simple way to confirm the putter is tracking correctly through the hitting zone.
This drill builds the muscle memory that showed up when it mattered most: that silky-smooth nine-and-a-half-footer on the 17th island green at TPC Sawgrass wasn't the product of luck. It was the product of thousands of repetitions.
3. Short Putt Pressure
Young's comment after winning — "the nerves kicked in over the 8-inch putt on the last" — reveals something important about his practice philosophy. Even tap-ins feel different when a $4.5 million check and a Players Championship title are on the line. The best putters in the world practice short putts under pressure to build the neural pathways that hold up when adrenaline is flowing.
One effective method: the circle drill. Place five balls in a circle three feet from the hole. You must make all five in a row. Miss one, start over. It sounds simple until you're on ball number four with your heart rate elevated. This kind of purposeful, pressure-based practice separates recreational putters from golfers who make clutch putts when it counts.
4. Pre-Round Routine
If you watch footage of Young's pre-round putting sessions, you'll notice a consistent pattern: he starts with medium-range putts (12 to 20 feet) to calibrate speed, moves to short putts (3 to 6 feet) to build confidence, and finishes with a few long lag putts (30+ feet) to feel the pace of that day's greens. The entire session typically lasts 15 to 20 minutes — focused and efficient, not mindless ball-rolling.
This structured approach mirrors what the best coaches in the game recommend: quality repetitions with specific goals rather than aimlessly hitting putts at random targets.
Lessons from the 17th Hole: What Young's Winning Putt Teaches Us
Let's revisit that birdie putt on 17 one more time, because it's a masterclass in putting under pressure.
The situation: Young was trailing Fitzpatrick by one. The wind was blowing downwind, making club selection on the tee shot critical. Young took an aggressive line to the pin, landing his approach nine and a half feet from the hole. Fitzpatrick played safe to the middle of the green, 28 feet away.
Fitzpatrick missed his birdie attempt. Now it was Young's turn.
Watch the replay closely and you'll see three things:
- Calm routine: Young didn't change anything. Same deliberate walk, same read from behind the ball, same one practice stroke feeling the speed. No rushing, no hesitation.
- Committed stroke: Once he settled over the ball, there was zero deceleration through impact. The Phantom 9.5 released with that toe flow he'd been working on all year, and the ball came off the face with perfect pace.
- Head still: Young kept his head down through the stroke, listening for the ball to drop rather than peeking. This is a hallmark of confident putters — they trust their read and their stroke.
Nine and a half feet of pure putting. No wasted motion. No drama in the stroke, even with all the drama in the moment.
How to Practice Like Cameron Young at Home
You don't need access to TPC Sawgrass to train the skills that made Young a Players Champion. Here's how to build his approach into your daily routine:
Equipment Foundation
Young's putting transformation started with finding the right putter setup for his stroke. While you likely can't get a Scotty Cameron Tour Prototype, the principle applies to everyone: match your putter's balance to your natural stroke. If you have an arcing stroke, look for putters with some toe hang (like Young's jet neck). If you putt straight-back-straight-through, a face-balanced mallet will serve you better.
What matters equally is having a consistent surface to practice on. Young practices on tour-quality greens every day. For home practice, you want a putting mat that rolls true at realistic speeds. The Chiputt Tour Grade Putting Mat replicates the speed and feel of championship greens, giving you a surface where the drills described above actually translate to on-course improvement.
The Cameron Young Daily 15
Based on Young's practice habits and the drills that built his elite putting stats, here's a 15-minute daily routine you can do at home:
Minutes 1 to 5 — Speed Calibration (Ladder Drill): Set targets at increasing distances on your putting mat. Roll putts to each target, focusing exclusively on pace. Every ball must finish past the previous one. This mirrors how Young starts his pre-round warm-up.
Minutes 6 to 10 — Stroke Path (Gate Drill): Set two tees just outside putter-width, a few inches in front of your ball. Hit 20 putts through the gate to a target six to eight feet away. With Young's arcing stroke, the goal is face-square-at-impact — not a robot-straight path. Feel the release.
Minutes 11 to 15 — Pressure Putting (Circle Drill): Place balls three feet from your target. Make five in a row. Miss one, restart. When you can consistently complete this, move back to four feet. This is the drill that builds the confidence to sink nine-and-a-half-footers on island greens when it matters most.
For longer practice sessions, consider adding the Chiputt Mat Extender to your setup. The added length lets you practice lag putts from 15 feet and beyond — the distance range where Young's elite speed control separates him from the field.
What's Next for Cameron Young
With The Players Championship trophy on his mantel, Young enters the 2026 major season as one of the most dangerous players in the world. The Masters is just a month away, and recent history suggests that Players Champions carry serious momentum into Augusta. Cam Smith won the 2022 Open Championship after his Players title. Rory McIlroy captured Augusta in 2025 after winning at Sawgrass. Scottie Scheffler claimed two Green Jackets following Players victories.
If Young's putting holds up — and given his 2025 statistical leap, there's every reason to believe it will — the 28-year-old from Scarborough, New York, might just be getting started.
One thing is certain: the days of Cameron Young being "the best player without a big win" are over. The putter that once held him back has become his weapon. And it all started with finding the right feel, building the right habits, and putting in the right kind of practice.
Want to Putt Like a Players Champion?
Cameron Young didn't transform his putting overnight — he did it through consistent, purposeful practice on championship-speed surfaces. You can build the same habits at home.
The Chiputt Tour Grade Putting Mat gives you a true-rolling, tour-speed surface to run the exact drills that built Young's elite stats: ladder drills for speed control, gate drills for stroke path, and pressure circles for clutch-putt confidence.
Need more room for lag putts? Add the Chiputt Mat Extender and practice the 15-to-30-foot putts that separate good putters from great ones.
Shop the Chiputt Putting Mat →
About Chiputt Golf
Chiputt Golf makes tour-grade putting mats and chipping mats designed for serious golfers who want to practice with purpose. Our products are used by golfers in over 25 countries and are engineered to replicate the speed and feel of championship greens. Learn more at thechiputt.com.
