Cam Young’s tee shot on TPC Sawgrass’s iconic par-3 17th that led to him winning the Players Championship will be in the highlight reels forever.
A key angle of that moment, though, almost didn’t happen, according to the Sports Business Journal.
Darren Wargo was the crane camera operator, 125 feet in the air, responsible for tracking shots on the course’s final four holes. But on Sunday, with the tournament winding down, the wind picked up, sparking a dilemma just as Young approached the 17th tee box, trailing Matt Fitzpatrick by a stroke.
“There’s a pad down on the bottom [of the platform] that just helps me, keeps my feet padded a little,” Wargo said. “But at some point it blew up and it got caught between my cage that I’m working around and I wasn’t going to be able to spin. And I was trying to wrestle with that and Cam Young was about to tee off and I just barely got back to the tee in time.”
NBC’s aerial replay of Cameron Young’s 17th-hole tee shot yesterday? It almost didn’t happen. https://t.co/yNWRtAUftu pic.twitter.com/6fG5CLEE41
— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) March 16, 2026
Then, of course, Young hit his shot to 9 feet and buried a 9-foot birdie putt. That tied him and Fitzpatrick heading to the final hole, where Young would claim the victory with a par as Fitzpatrick bogeyed.
On Sunday, the PGA Tour shared a video of Wargo operating the crane camera. He told SBJ he doesn’t work in shifts at the Players Championship, compared to other events, and is in the sky for nearly seven hours, starting 30 minutes before Golf Channel or NBC goes on-air.
Working a shift from 125 feet(!!) in the air 😳
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 15, 2026
A unique view from one of the coolest jobs in golf. pic.twitter.com/OFmsLao62h
To stay nurtured, he has protein bars and Uncrustables with him, but dehydrates himself before getting in position, joking that he brings “an empty Gatorade bottle up with me.”
Sometimes, oddities occur, and there’s little margin for error. Thankfully, though, Wargo was able to quell his conundrum and capture a moment from Young that will forever be part of Players Championship lore.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NBC Almost Misses Key Replay of Cam Young’s Pivotal Tee Shot at Players Championship.
