Tag: putting

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Cameron Young’s Winning Plan: 4 Golf Lessons You Can Use Right Now

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By Brendon Elliott, PGA

Published on Monday, March 16, 2026

Cameron Young’s win at THE PLAYERS Championship was obviously fueled by talent, but that is not the part most golfers should focus on. Yes, he has speed. Yes, he can hit shots most players can only imagine. But his victory at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday came from something far more useful to the average golfer: he played organized golf under pressure. Young started the final round four shots back, shot 68, and won by one over Matt Fitzpatrick for his second PGA TOUR title.

That is why his week is worth studying.

The stat sheet from his performance at TPC Sawgrass tells the story clearly. Young gained 7.075 strokes on approach shots and 4.818 on the greens. He hit 70.83 percent of his greens in regulation, scrambled at 76.19 percent, made 20 birdies and just five bogeys on the week. That is not one club getting hot. That is a player keeping his game in order from start to finish.

For the average golfer, that is the real takeaway. You do not need Cameron Young’s clubhead speed to borrow Cameron Young’s blueprint.

1. Play for position, not perfection

Many amateur mistakes begin on the tee. Golfers fall in love with the idea of a perfect drive and forget the point of the shot. The goal is not to impress yourself or your buddies. The goal is to set up the next shot.

Young’s numbers are a good reminder of that. He gained strokes off the tee for the week, but he hit 60.71 percent of his fairways, which is solid, not flawless. He did not need perfect driving to win. He needed playable driving. He kept the ball moving forward and gave himself chances to attack from reasonable spots.

That is a helpful course-management rule for everybody: choose the tee shot that gives you the easiest next shot. Sometimes that is the driver. Sometimes it is a 3-wood. Sometimes it is a club that leaves a few more yards but takes the big miss out of play. Golf gets a lot simpler when you stop trying to hit your absolute best drive and start trying to hit your most reliable one.

2. Aim at greens like a scorer, not a hero

Young’s week was built on iron play. Gaining more than seven strokes on approach at Sawgrass is a huge number, and hitting 51 of 72 greens means he kept giving himself opportunities while staying out of trouble.

That should sound familiar to any golfer who has ever wrecked a scorecard by chasing a tucked flag.

Most players do not need to aim closer. They need to aim smarter. If the pin is cut near water, a bunker, or a steep run-off area, the best target is often the fat side of the green. That does not mean playing scared. It means understanding what actually lowers scores. More greens. Fewer short-sided misses. More putts from 20 feet. Fewer chips from a tricky lie.

Young’s iron play this week was sharp, but it was also disciplined. There is a difference. Good scoring usually comes from repeating sound targets, not from pulling off miracle shots.

3. Make your short game about saving holes

One reason Young was able to keep pressure on the field all week was that his misses did not spiral. He led the field in scrambling at 76.19 percent and went 4-for-5 in sand saves. When he missed, he recovered. That is a skill every golfer can build.

The short game should not just be something you work on when the rest of your game feels broken. It should be part of your scoring plan.

Too many golfers practice chipping in a way that looks nice but does not help much. They drop a handful of balls in one perfect lie and hit the same shot over and over. Then they get on the course, short-side themselves from rough or sand, and panic.

A better approach is to practice variety. One chip from a tight lie. One pitch with less green to work with. One bunker shot. One basic runner. One shot from light rough. Give yourself a score and try to get up and down. That is the kind of practice that actually transfers to the course.

4. Putt to take stress out of the hole

Young also gained nearly five strokes putting for the week, and that matters because strong putting is not only about making birdies. It is also about refusing to give shots away. He made only five bogeys all week, which tells you a lot about how cleanly he managed rounds at a course that punishes loose mistakes.

For most golfers, better putting starts with better expectations.

From 30 feet, the job is to cozy the ball down near the hole. From 6 feet, the job is to make a committed stroke. From 3 feet, the job is to trust your routine and finish the hole. That sounds basic, but so many players make putting harder than it needs to be by treating every putt like a must-make event.

If you want a smarter practice split, spend most of your putting time in two zones: lag putts from 25 to 40 feet and short putts from 3 to 6 feet. That is where scorecards change.

Recap

Young’s PLAYERS win was a reminder that great golf does not always look wild or dramatic. Sometimes it looks steady. The ball stays in play. The irons find the right parts of the greens. The short game cleans up mistakes. The putter keeps panic out of the round.

You may never hit it like Cameron Young. Almost nobody can. But you can absolutely play with more discipline, make better decisions and turn your own game into something more repeatable.

That is the part of his win worth borrowing.

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Putting Grip

How to establish a putting grip that maximizes feel and minimizes misses

by Marius Filmalter

There is a saying: “You will never find a good golfer with a bad grip, but you might find a bad golfer with a good grip.” Although that is very true, I don’t think the “type of grip” is all that important in putting. I have observed too many different types of successful putting grips on the PGA Tour to think that one is better than the rest. For instance: we have the popular reverse overlap grip, the overlap, the cross-handed, the praying hands, the claw, and a few more that I’m not even sure have a name yet.

 The only two things important in putting are to control the 1. Direction (line) and 2. Distance (speed) you hit the ball. In other words, to hit the ball where you THINK you are aiming with the correct speed. A good grip will significantly enhance your chances to achieve these goals.

For most amateurs, I recommend the standard putting grip. It’s simple and easy to learn.

The key to the standard grip is getting the putter into the palms of your hands–not the fingers, like you would in a full-swing grip.

And that means, on your left hand, instead of the grip coming at a slight downward angle across the bottom of your fingers and the heel pad resting on top of the club, the grip comes almost straight up and down through your palm, with your THUMB pad on top of the putter.

See how that works?

That’s the first basic of more effective putting–getting the grip in the palm of your hand as opposed to your fingers to maximize your feel and minimize your misses.

The second basic is the actual grip itself. While you may prefer to use a ten-finger, overlap, or interlock grip in your full swing, using these grips for your putting stroke can lead to overactive hands, inconsistent results and poor play.

That’s why I recommend the “reverse overlap” to most of my students. In the “reverse overlap,” the index finger of your left hand overlaps your right hand and rests comfortably between the ring and pinkie finger of your right hand.

Now, when you grip the putter with both hands, the putter grip should run comfortably through both palms with your left thumb sitting on top or slightly right of the putter and fitting snugly into the lifeline of your right hand.

This position helps to keep the hands quiet, while also combining them as one unit to give you maximum control over your club.

So how do you know if you have a good putting grip or not?

Easy….

* For right-handed putters, take a hold of your putter with your left hand like I outlined above, with the grip intersecting the palm and your thumb pad on top.

* Now simply remove the pinkie, ring, and middle fingers, with only your thumb and trigger fingers on the club.

Your putter should balance nicely in the trigger finger and thumb pad, with the weight evenly distributed. You should feel as if you have complete control over your entire putter. Because, in a sense, you do.

If you can perform this little test with your putter in your hand, you should be good to go. Simply bring in your right hand so your left thumb fits comfortably into your right thumb pad, line up your putt, and make your stroke.

So let’s review the characteristics of a good putting grip:

1. Both hands should be in a natural and relaxed position…tension is “poison” for feel.

2. The palms should be facing each other. That encourages the hands to work together.

3. The palms should be square to the clubface. Square is significantly determined by the palm of your right hand (for right-handed golfers).

4. Both thumbs should be on the grip. We exercise most feel through the thumbs.

5. The grip should be more in the palm of the hands….very similar to driving a car. You want your hands able to react to “feel” but not be overactive.

6. The shaft of the putter should be an extension of the forearms.

Follow these simple grip guidelines, and you should find yourself sinking a lot more putts and getting a lot less frustrated on the greens.