Sunday Matters: Why you need to see PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship finale

The PGA Tour’s fifth signature event of the 2026 season is heading to the final round, and there’s no shortage of intrigue.

Cameron Young leads the Cadillac Championship by six shots thanks to three impressive rounds at Trump National Doral’s Blue Monster Course in Miami, Florida. After opening with an 8-under 64, Young is looking to go wire-to-wire and capture his second win of the year. But he’ll have to stave off the World No. 1 and a host of other heavy hitters if he wants to take home the $3.6 million check and the 700 FedEx Cup points awarded to this week’s winner.

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Here are the storylines you need to know heading into the final round of play. Here’s why Sunday Matters:

The weather: Tee times moved up with thunderstorms expected

The PGA Tour announced Saturday afternoon that the starting times for Sunday’s final round of the Cadillac Championship have been bumped up due to inclement weather in the forecast, which calls for multiple rounds of strong thunderstorms carrying heavy rain to move through the Miami area in the mid-morning and late afternoon hours. Players will now tee off in threesomes from 7:30-9:40 a.m. ET off both Nos. 1 and 10 tees. Aside from the storm potential, it will be hot and muggy, with air temperatures in the low 80s and a heat index nearing 90 degrees.

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The leaderboard

Here’s a look at the top of the leaderboard entering Sunday’s final round of the 2026 Cadillac Championship:

The frontrunner: Cameron Young

Cameron Young’s remarkable run to golf stardom is showing no signs of slowing down. The 28-year-old New York native is trying to go wire-to-wire at the Cadillac Championship after posting rounds of 64, 67 and 70 over the first three days, respectively, to get to 15 under. Another solid score on Sunday would secure Young his third win in nine months and his first at a PGA Tour signature event. He has been elite in every facet of his game this week on the difficult Blue Monster Course, ranking top 15 in strokes gained putting, off the tee, on approach and around the green.

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Young broke through with his first PGA Tour victory at the Wyndham Championship last summer before going 3-1 at the Ryder Cup to cap off 2025. He carried that momentum into 2026 with a win at the Players Championship and a T-3 finish at the Masters. He’ll have to hold off a potential charge from World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler on Sunday in Miami, but with a six-shot cushion entering the final day, Young has his sights set on another big win and another big payday.

The challengers: Scottie Scheffler, Si Woo Kim

Si Woo Kim and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will play alongside Young in the final threesome Sunday at the Cadillac Championship.

Scheffler finds himself in an all-too-familiar position of late, as he entered the week with two runner-up finishes in a row at the RBC Heritage and the Masters. It will take a herculean effort for him to catch Young, but if anyone can do it, it’s the world’s best player. Scheffler opened his week at Doral with a 1-under 71 before firing rounds of 67 and 69 on Friday and Saturday to get himself in contention, albeit still six shots off the lead.

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Scheffler has won 20 times since the start of the 2021 season, including four major championships. While he hasn’t been the dominant Scottie golf fans have grown used to seeing in recent years, he’s still been as consistent as ever in 2026, with one win and five top-5 finishes in eight starts. He has yet to finish outside the top 25 in an event this year and it’s looking like, at the very least, he’ll add to that streak in Miami. And if Young stumbles at any point Sunday, Scheffler will be right there to pounce.

Si Woo Kim, meanwhile, is putting together one of the best seasons of his career, but a win still eludes him. In 11 starts, Kim has recorded seven top-10 finishes, including a solo third at the RBC Heritage two weeks ago. He also has not missed a cut in 2026. Still, he’s seeking his first victory on the PGA Tour since the 2023 Sony Open in Hawaii.

Kim hasn’t been flashy this week in Miami, but he’s been solid in every round. Scores of 70, 68 and 69 have put him in position to make yet another run at a title. Could this be the week Si Woo finally breaks back into the winner’s circle?

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The reasonable longshot: Akshay Bhatia

Akshay Bhatia (7 under) will start Sunday’s final round at Doral eight shots off the lead, but he’s already shown once this year that he has the game to win a signature event. Bhatia defeated Daniel Berger in a playoff to emerge victorious at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, capturing his third career PGA Tour win and vaulting himself into the top 25 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Bhatia, a rising star on Tour, jumped 18 spots up the Cadillac Championship leaderboard on Sautrday with a 5-under 67 in tough conditions. He made four birdies and an eagle at the par-5 12th to offset a lone bogey at No. 15. If Young comes back to the pack, Bhatia has a chance to cement himself as one of the game’s premier players with another low round on Sunday.

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The hole to watch: No. 18

The Blue Monster is known for being a demanding, brutally long golf course, but in the early 2010s, pros began figuring it out. After Donald Trump bought it in 2012, he brought in renowned architect Gil Hanse to beef up the already difficult track. Hanse made sure the 18th is again one of the most feared holes in golf, writes Golfweek’s Adam Schupak. The fairway is narrow and serpentine, with water looming large on the left and trees on the right. There is nowhere to hide off the tee and the second shot is played to a green that is long but narrow, with the lake on the left and two bunkers to the right.

The course: ‘It’s called the Blue Monster for a reason’

Kaskel’s folly is home to the PGA Tour again. That’s what both friends and business associates said in 1959 when Alfred Kaskel, a New York real-estate developer, plunged his fortune into the construction of a golf resort in the center of 2,400 acres of swampland in northwest Miami-Dade County. Even his wife, Doris, voiced her concern, writes Golfweek’s Adam Schupak.

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“It’ll never work, Alfred,” she said. “You’re creating a monster.”

Alfred coined the name Doral, charmingly melding their two first names, and hired Dick Wilson, one of the leading golf course architects of the day, to build what became known as Doral Hotel and Country Club. His wife was right about one thing: a monster was created, indeed, and the course bears the nickname of “the Blue Monster.” Billy Casper won the first title and Doral became a staple of the Tour through 2016 with a winner’s list that reads like the World Golf Hall of Fame roll call (14 of them all): Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Nick Faldo, Raymond Floyd, Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, who won three in a row from 2005 to 2007 and again in 2013.

“I watched a lot of iconic golf shots at this golf course,” said Maverick McNealy, who recalled viewing the tournament on TV in his youth.

Venerable Doral eventually became vulnerable to the pros, who began to aim at driving some of the par 4s that were never imagined to be played that way. Donald Trump bought the long, brawny track in 2012 and rebranded it Trump National Doral. He hired architect Gil Hanse to lengthen, toughen and add water to six to 14 of the holes.

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“It’s called the Blue Monster for a reason,” said Adam Scott, who won the last edition of the tournament here in 2016. “It’s a big golf course, very penal. The wind can blow, and that’s the biggest challenge out here. So, you’ve got to strike it well, just demanding tee to green.”

The schedule: How many signature events are left?

Here’s a look at the PGA Tour’s 2026 signature events:

Golfweek senior PGA Tour writer Adam Schupak contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Sunday Matters: Why you need to see PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship finale