5 things to know about PGA Championship hopeful Cameron Young

TULSA, Okla. – With an eagle at 17, Cameron Young shot 3-under 67 on Saturday and vaulted into fourth place at 5-under 205, four strokes behind 54-hole leader Mito Pereira, heading into the final round of the 104th PGA Championship at Southern Hills.

Young, 25, is having a breakout season as a rookie, notching three runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour, the most of any player. The new father of a son, Henry, could make an even bigger splash by making the PGA Championship his first Tour title.

Here are five things to know about Young, who was ranked No. 501 in the world at the end of 2020 and entered the week ranked No. 38 in the world.

PGA: How to watch | ESPN+ streaming | Leaderboard | Sunday tee times

Born into the game

Cameron Young prepares to tee off on the 14th tee during the third round of the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. (Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Young is a native of Scarborough, New York, where his father, David, is director of golf at Sleepy Hollow Country Club, one of the great courses in the country. (Young’s mom is a stick, too.) Young showed promise from an early age, becoming the youngest winner of the Carter Cup in 2011 as well as Metropolitan Golf Association Junior champion. He was named MGA Player of the Year in 2015, twice won the prestigious Ike, and claimed the Westchester (NY) Golf Association Amateur title too.

Young had the grades to go to Stanford but chose Wake Forest, where he received the Lanny Wadkins Scholarship. He joked that he wasn’t good enough for the Arnold Palmer Scholarship, which went to his teammate Will Zalatoris. The two former teammates are paired together in the second-to-last group Sunday at Southern Hills (1:25 p.m. local time).

Winning the PGA and the Wanamaker Trophy that goes to its champion would be extra special to the son of a club professional.

“It’s because of the PGA that (my father’s) had the job he had for the last many years. Without that, at Sleepy Hollow I don’t start playing at four years old or earlier. I don’t have the access that I did growing up. I started playing in PGA junior events when I was nine, eight, something like that,” Cameron Young said. “For me I’ve been given so much access to golf because of that organization. So to kind of have the chance to go from local PGA junior tournaments, national PGA juniors to Junior Ryder Cup, to even play in a PGA Championship is really cool for me. It kind of has been with me my whole way through.”

Asked if the PGA is the major he most desired, he said, “I wouldn’t discriminate. If I were to win a major championship, I would take any one of them. This one specifically with my parents here this week would be pretty incredible.”

Earning his way to the PGA Tour the hard way

Cameron Young plays his shot on the 17th tee during the second round of the 2022 NCAA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. (Photo: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)

After winning twice as a freshman at the U.S. Collegiate Championship and the Warrior Princeville Makai Invitational, Young returned to Wake Forest in the fall with a list of nine changes he wanted to make to his swing.

Wake Forest men’s golf coach Jerry Haas said, “We can make you look better, but is it really going to be better?”

Before implementing any changes, Haas checked in with Young’s dad, the architect of Cameron’s swing. It was about 9 o’clock when the club pro answered and he had worked a long day. When Haas explained the situation, Young answered, “That’s why I sent him there. Whatever you want to do is good.”

“It was like a 45-second conversation,” Haas remembered. “I hung up thinking that’s a good Dad there.”

Young went on to be an All-Atlantic Coast selection three times (2017-2019).

After turning pro in 2019, Young only had status on the Mackenzie Tour in 2020, but that tour canceled its season due to the pandemic. He had to Monday Qualify into Korn Ferry Tour events. On his fifth try, he shot 64 and made it into the Pinnacle Bank Championship in Omaha, Nebraska, and strung together a bunch of top-25 finishes to keep playing. After beginning the season with no status, he finished the combined 2020-21 season No. 17 in the points standings. He won the AdventHealth Championship and Evans Scholars Invitational in back-to-back weeks.

‘Explosive’

Cameron Young hits his tee shot on the 7th hole during the third round of the 2022 NCAA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. (Photo: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)

That’s the word Wake’s Haas used to describe Young’s game. Young is a bomber, averaging 316 yards off the tee, ranking ninth on the PGA Tour this season, and second in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee.

“He’s very aggressive,” Haas added. “He’s like most players, he thinks he can hit every shot and therefore he tries it.” Even Young noted at the Genesis Invitational that he’s learning to play more conservatively and that’s helped him already this week.

“If he putts good and gets hot, he’s not afraid to keep it going,” Haas said. He was speaking specifically of Riviera, where Young tied for second, but a hot putter could be the key to lifting the Wanamaker on Sunday.

Mississippi Magic

Cameron Young celebrates his eagle on the 17th hole during the third round of the 2022 NCAA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. (Photo: Eric Gay/Associated Press)

In his fifth start as a rookie, Young finally made his first PGA Tour cut at the Sanderson Farms Championship and did so in fine fashion, finishing tied for second and earning the largest check of his young career ($627,000). He texted Haas 45 minutes before the final round and said, “If I’m clean today, I’ll win.”

Haas was struck by how special it was to hear from one of his former players just before the heat of competition. “How many kids text their college coach 45 minutes before they tee off in the final round?”

Afterward, Young texted, “I wasn’t clean today.” But next time, he might be.

“That makes you know that it’s possible to win out here,” Young said of what he learned from being in the hunt at Sanderson Farms. “Not that we didn’t believe that in the first place, but having evidence of it is never bad.”

In addition to Mississippi, Young has tied for second in Los Angeles and just outside of the nation’s capital at the Wells Fargo Championship and his current hot streak also includes a T-3 at the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Separation anxiety

Cameron Young celebrates his eagle with his caddie on the 17th hole during the third round of the 2022 NCAA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. (Photo: Eric Gay/Associated Press)

Young’s week started with a curveball when his golf club’s went MIA from Miami.

“We had a little separation,” he said. “I left Miami on Monday night and they left on Tuesday morning. I beat them here by about five hours probably, five or six hours. The Titleist van made me a couple so I could come out and chip shots when I got here. I finally got them about 3 o’clock on Tuesday afternoon. It was certainly annoying, but not the end of the world.”

2022 PGA Championship, Cameron Young, PGA Championship, Southern Hills Country Club, Video, PGA Championship