Smylie Kaufman believes that one player could potentially soon end his wait for a PGA Tour win or compete at The Open after what he did at the Travelers Championship.
A lot of the talk coming out of the Travelers Championship, understandably, focused on Scottie Scheffler securing his sixth win of the season – becoming the first player since Arnold Palmer to secure six victories before the end of June.
But there were plenty of storylines at the signature event, with one player even shooting 59 on Saturday to bring themselves back in contention.
Cameron Young has had a reasonable year, with a top 10 at The Masters and only one missed cut. However, the 27-year-old has rarely been in serious contention, particularly since doing well at Augusta National.
Cameron Young backed to contend at The Open Championship
But he returned to the top 10 at the Travelers, with the highlight clearly being the 59 on day three.
It is a surprise that Young is yet to win on the PGA Tour. But speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman believes that that round could be exactly what Young needs to take that next step.
“We needed Cam Young to just step up and do something, if it’s 59, so be it. We wanted to see something out of Cam Young that matched his potential and his talent and what we know he can be, just the glimpse that we saw a couple of years back, finishing second at The Open Championship, and a player that just seemed like he was about to light the world on fire with how good he was going to be,” he said.
“He’s definitely taken his bumps over the last year, and it hasn’t been poor golf, he just hasn’t necessarily got himself in contention and he’s had issues, the putter, for the most part I would say has been a big problem, and then just some inconsistencies.
“But Cam Young’s a player that, when you look it’s just drop dead talent, a player that doesn’t necessarily have a ton of charisma, not a guy that’s just eating up the press conferences and is a great interview by any means. He’s just a dude that’s really good at golf, he’s chilled, three kids now, just goes to work.
“I’ll say that, to me, was a really big moment for Cam, just, ‘hey, I can do this, I just made a putt that I had to make’. So for Cam Young, why don’t we just watch out for him for the rest of the year, maybe this is going to propel him to some bigger and better things, whether it’s winning his first PGA Tour event or potentially contending at The Open Championship, or maybe a run at the play-offs, who knows, that wouldn’t surprise me at all either.”
American has good record across the pond
Interestingly, Young is set to make his third Open appearance at Royal Troon next month, and on his previous two starts, he has managed to finish inside the top 10.
He did finish second to Cameron Smith at St Andrews, with the pair almost inspiring each other to overtake Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland. Young led after round one and never fell out of the top three.
Anyone looking to secure their first win right now is facing a real fight with Scheffler in the unbelievable form he is in currently, but Young did score better than the world number one over the final three rounds at the Travelers, so he certainly has the potential to get himself across the line.
As Kaufman suggests, he is surely one name to keep an eye out for in the months ahead.
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