Cameron Young has now shaken off the tag of potentially being the best player on the PGA Tour right now without a victory after his win at the Wyndham Championship this past week.
It had been baffling to many that Cameron Young had not yet won on the PGA Tour. The talent is definitely there, with the 28-year-old having top seven finishes at all four of the majors during his career.
But getting across the line had previously proved to be too large a hurdle for Young.
Thankfully, that hurdle has now been cleared – and in some style. Young won the Wyndham Championship by six shots to move inside the top 20 in the FedEx Cup standings ahead of the playoffs. Young has also staked his claim for a Ryder Cup spot.
Cameron Young explains what surprised him before the final round of the Wyndham Championship
Of course, getting across the line is easier said than done, even for players at that level. Many will remember how Tommy Fleetwood opened the door for Keegan Bradley when the Englishman should have won the Travelers Championship.
Young seems to be the coolest of characters, and he boasted a sizeable lead with 18 holes to play. Nevertheless, he admitted after his final round that he was a little shocked to feel as tense as he did before getting out there on Sunday at Sedgefield.
“Yeah, honestly, last night was no problem. Like we were out here early, we had to play three holes and then come back and play a whole round of golf. By the time I got home it was dinner, bed, so I really had no issue. This morning I was a little bit more nervous than I expected, but kind of just did my usual stuff. I was a little bit nervous starting out and then by the time I made the second or third birdie, I was just ready to get it done,” he said.
“Yeah, I wasn’t nervous at all those last bunch, I just kind of at that point had my foot off the gas and frankly I knew that I could make a couple bogeys and it was just a matter of not hitting it anywhere that I could possibly make a double, which I didn’t want to play that way but at some point, you know, I wanted to win by 12 and at some point there’s something more important than that probably with four holes to go and an eight-shot lead or whatever it was at the time, I was just trying to get it done. Even though I had a couple putts for par, it was like the least stressful few holes probably of my career.”
How much pressure Cameron Young felt trying to end wait for a PGA Tour win
The big question surrounding Young now is whether his win will change the trajectory of his career. Clearly, he has so much talent. And he may now have a new level of belief after proving that he can win at the highest level.
Interestingly, it appears that Young was not feeling the pressure of not winning before the Wyndham Championship, as he suggested that he felt relaxed about the fact that his time would come.
“It’s not like a burden that I hadn’t won, it’s just something that I hadn’t done and I’d like to. At times it hurts to have played some really good golf and not had that happen, but in all those cases there were really no times that I had it in my hands and lost. So it’s different I think than having a burden. It wasn’t really like that. It was more just when is it going to be my time here because it just felt like a lot of those tournaments weren’t.
“I think I answered basically that question at the PGA Championship in 2022. Somebody asked me something similar, when are you going to win something. I said, well, I don’t know, I played pretty well today, I’m sure one of these times I’ll be right there and I’ll shoot 31 on the back nine and win. I went to the British Open and shot 31 on the back nine and lost by one to someone that shot 30. It wasn’t like I was coming from way back or anything, like I was right there and shot 5 under and lost, or got beat rather. So yeah, not a burden in the traditional sense.
“Today was a different situation than I’ve ever been in. You know, it was our goal today to come out and see how many I could win by if I stuck to our plan. About halfway through the round my brain just said let’s make some pars. So I was trying to aim at stuff and I honestly just, I think the mind is powerful and it was just taking me towards the middle of greens. I would like to have hit some better shots, but got it done and happy to have done it.”
Young now has three top five finishes in his last six starts, including at the US Open. With that, he is certainly going to be a name to watch out for in the FedEx Cup playoffs – and perhaps the Ryder Cup.
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