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Cameron Young was not quite a year old when “Sliding Doors” hit theaters in 1998, but the Gwyneth Paltrow romantic comedy resonates with the PGA TOUR rookie and his wife, Kelsey.
As in the movie, his present circumstances – 17th in the FedExCup after two runner-up finishes, most recently at The Genesis Invitational last week – go back to one seemingly innocuous moment. Without it, one could argue, he wouldn’t be on the PGA TOUR yet, let alone in pole position for Arnold Palmer Rookie of the Year.
It was August of 2020, and Young was a frustrated, if highly decorated amateur who had reached an inflection point as he contemplated whether to leave home in Florida for a Korn Ferry Tour Monday qualifier for the Pinnacle Bank Championship in Omaha, Nebraska.
Burnt out, he decided to skip it. Life at this level was a thankless grind. Maybe he wasn’t good enough.
Of course, no one would think that of him today, just as no one would have suggested it when he was a kid. A dynamo on the New York amateur scene, Young was the youngest winner of the Westchester Amateur at 14, youngest winner of the Ike Championship at 18 – a title he successfully defended – and the first amateur to win the New York State Open in 2017. He got a scholarship to join Will Zalatoris at Wake Forest, where he won twice as a freshman and was a three-time all-conference performer.
Zalatoris recalls a nine-hole practice round in which Young, running late, joined them on the fourth hole, made a flurry of birdies and eagles, then began thinking aloud where they might all decamp for dinner.
“Didn't hit a single ball warming up,” Zalatoris says, “didn't hit a single putt ...’”
After college, Young was antsy to turn pro and reach the PGA TOUR, like contemporaries Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff, Viktor Hovland, and Zalatoris. Young medaled at PGA TOUR Canada qualifying school in March of 2020, but then the world, and his career, ground to a halt.
“That was the day they announced shutting all golf down for the foreseeable future thanks to COVID,” he says. “So that’s in March and you wait around until May and you’re hoping at end of May you will play in Canada and then it’s June, July, and then that tour is cancelled.
“Sitting there for those months, stuck, was awful.”
When golf in some capacity started back up his only avenue was the Korn Ferry Tour Monday qualifiers and mini tour events, a life Young called “miserable.” He yearned to compete on a bigger stage.
“People don’t always realize how fine the lines are,” he says. “At that level everyone is good, everyone is trying to do the same thing and unless you do something special you won’t get anywhere. You can shoot 65 every week and you don’t get anything, not that I did that, but I did play three Mondays in a row and two mini tour events in between them and I went back and did the math. My scoring average was like 66.8 for those three weeks and I made just $100 and didn’t qualify out of any of the Mondays.”
The frustration informed his decision to skip a trip to Omaha for another Monday qualifier in August. Having spent so much time on the road, he felt it was time to regroup at home with Kelsey in Florida.
“It was either Thursday or Friday night,” he says of his Gwyneth Paltrow/Sliding Doors moment, “and I told her, ‘I’m not going. It’s the last one of the season – what’s the point? I’m done.’ I didn’t want to go; I was fed up with playing really well and getting nothing for it. But to her credit she said, ‘You’re right. It’s the last one of the season. So why don’t you go? You can have a break after.’”
Looking for a second opinion, Young called his coach and father, David, PGA of America Professional and the head pro at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Scarborough, New York. That’s where Cameron had learned the game from the age of 4. It was where he would jump off the train from school, grab a wedge and balls, and milk the last minutes of daylight. Now, though, his life had gotten complicated.
This wasn’t the first time he’d wanted to quit; Young says that as he matured, he began to rely on his father’s patient counsel more and more. (He still plays regularly with his dad, whom he first beat when he shot 68 at age 12, and mom Barbara, a very good player who has caddied for Cameron.)
This time, David, like Kelsey, advised Cameron to play on. So Young begrudgingly packed a bag and told Kelsey he’d see her in 36 hours. He wouldn’t come home for six weeks.
Get to know: Cameron Young
Young got through the Monday qualifier in Omaha, despite sleeping through his alarm and making it to the course just 25 minutes prior to his tee time. He then finished T11 in the tournament proper. Players who finish in the top 25 on the Korn Ferry earn another start the following week, so Young was off to the Portland Open, where he tied for 14th.
After so much frustration, it was finally happening.
He finished T6 at the Albertsons Boise Open (T6) and almost won the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Open in Columbus Ohio but settled for a runner-up finish. He missed the cut in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, but thanks to his decision to play in Omaha, and his subsequent heater, he now had a place to play going forward. He had Special Temporary Membership. And just in time. Before Omaha, he was unsure how he was going to fund his upcoming entry fees and travel.
“I think I had more golf planned for the next two weeks than I had money to pay for it,” Young says. “I had like five grand to my name. I was literally drafting an email for the membership at Sleepy Hollow for potential support. If I was a shot or two worse, I wouldn’t have got in the following week so you think of all the six footers that kind of bounced in or fell off the lip. That’s how cutthroat golf is. That’s the difference from being here on the PGA TOUR to being God knows where.”
After a tough start last season, Young became the 10th back-to-back winner in Korn Ferry Tour history at the AdventHealth Championship (May 23) and NV5 Invitational presented by Old National Bank (May 30). He shared the lead once and led outright for the other seven rounds, a Korn Ferry Tour record, and would finish 19th in the regular season points list to punch his ticket to the PGA TOUR.
“After the first win I think I moved to 26th on the list and a TOUR card all of a sudden became possible in my mind,” he says. “It was the rejuvenation of the season I needed. I went from feeling that I didn’t know what I was doing to thinking, I’m right there. My mentality changed and from there it was easier.”
The momentum from his first win carried straight through to his second, and although he badly wanted a third win and with it an automatic promotion to the PGA TOUR, he would take on two more top-10s.
“The KFT is a great place to develop,” Young says, “a great place for the next guys to come through, but the hard part is no one wants to be there. You are so happy when you get there because it means you can get to the PGA TOUR, but as soon as you earn status out there you are trying to leave as fast as you can.
“The mood on the range on the KFT is so different to the PGA TOUR.”
It was such a grind to make it to the PGA TOUR, Young vowed to do whatever it took to stick. In his second start of this season, at the Sanderson Farms Championship, he finished second to former junior Ryder Cup teammate Sam Burns. A couple of weeks on the periphery of contention followed.
Young was in the mix at The American Express before a final-round 77. He shot a third-round 64 at the Farmers Insurance Open. Then he came to The Genesis Invitational at The Riviera Country Club. It was a stacked field, but the big-hitting rookie liked the course and predicted he would do well.
“I’m going to have a couple good chances to win coming up because I’m playing pretty good and simple golf,” Young said Wednesday, as the best field of the season so far prepared to tee it up. “I am blessed that throughout my life I’ve always had a couple of weeks when I’ve been really good and typically it’s been good enough to win and I’m living under the assumption that that will continue.”
Sure enough, Young opened 66, 62, which in any other year would have grabbed the headlines. Joaquin Niemann opened 63-63 and went on to win the tournament by two over Young and Collin Morikawa.
Young now heads to The Honda Classic at PGA National, where he once claimed a huge American Junior Golf Association victory in 2013. The good vibes continue and as we’ve seen, when Young is in form, he tends to maintain momentum. And he’s home in Florida with family, including newborn son Henry.
He ranks second on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (+.812) and fourth in driving distance (320.2). He has more drives of 320+ yards than anyone else on TOUR, with his 183 well ahead of Joseph Bramlett’s 157. World No.1 Jon Rahm has 113. Young is also 7th in birdie average with five a round.
His run of results has him 53rd in the world, up from 526th on May 1, 2021. If he can find a way into the top 50, it would mean a berth in THE PLAYERS Championship and possibly the Masters.
“I’m looking forward to playing at PGA National again,” Young says. He is aware of his ranking but says he’s trying not to dwell on it, instead focusing on what has been working in his game.
“If you told me before the season that I’d be at this point now I certainly wouldn’t have believed you,” he says. “I would have been thrilled with it, I’m sure. Now, we just keep going and see what happens. At the end of the day, I know I’m somewhat lucky to be out here. Although I’m confident I would have found a way, I’ve seen how one moment can change your life. I don’t intend to take anything for granted.”
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