President Donald J. Trump gave Cameron Young a thumbs up after watching Young methodically pick apart his fearsome Blue Monster course at Trump National Doral and cruise to a six-shot wire-to-wire victory in the Cadillac Championship.
After opening with a bogey-free 8-under-par 64 for a one-shot lead, Young followed with a 67 for a five-shot lead over three players. A third-round 70 extended his lead to six shots over three players, including World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. And he closed with a 68 for a 19-under total, six shots better than Scheffler, who also shot 68 and finished second for his third consecutive tournament.
“Winning is really hard. At no point did it feel easy, did it feel like the tournament was over,” said Young, who earned $3.6 million for his third career victory and moved up to third in the world golf rankings after his performance on a course that hadn’t hosted a PGA Tour event since 2016.
“It’s an honor to get to play in front of (the President),” Young added. “I’m hugely grateful to him and his family and his organization that has these beautiful properties and allows us to come and play great golf tournaments on them. This is a special place and a great championship golf course. I’m thankful to have it back in the schedule.”
Young Calls Penalty on Himself
Young was so dominant that not even a one-shot penalty could stop his momentum. He called the penalty on himself on the par-4 second hole when he addressed his second shot, and the ball moved. He then hit his third shot 13½ feet from the pin and sank the par putt.
“Your heart sinks when you see it move,” Young said. “But it moved. That’s part of what’s golf about. There’s no one who’s going to give me a penalty there but myself.”
Young led the field in birdies with 24 and Strokes Gained: Putting at 7.062. His game was perfectly suited to the 7,739-yard Blue Monster, where the last wire-to-wire winner was Andy Bean in 1977.
“It’s just undeniably a big, difficult, championship golf course,” Young said. “For me personally, I prefer a difficult golf course to an easier one.”
Young had finished second seven times before finally winning his first PGA Tour title last July at the Wyndham. He won The PLAYERS Championship in March.
Rainy Weather Softened Conditions
A bit more than an inch of rain fell on the course in the early morning hours Sunday, delaying a planned 7:30 a.m. start (which had already been rescheduled Saturday in anticipation of bad weather) to the final round by two hours. And the Blue Monster was no longer a monster, not with everything softened by the rain.
The average scores in the first three rounds were between 71 and 71.6. The average score on Sunday, with preferred lies, was 69. There were nine birdies – total – on the par-4 18th in the first three rounds and 12 at the finishing hole on Sunday alone.
Scheffler, who birdied holes 15, 16, and 17 to move into second, finished a shot behind Rory McIlroy at the Masters and lost a playoff to Matt Fitzpatrick at Hilton Head. Those were near-misses; this one wasn’t.
That’s how good Young was. Even the best player in the world never had a real chance on Sunday.
Ben Griffin was third, a shot behind Scheffler at 12 under, after a 68. Adam Scott (64), who won here in 2016, Si Woo Kim (70) and Sepp Straka (66) tied for fourth at 11 under.
Alex Fitzpatrick, who won the previous week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans with his brother Matt, tied for ninth at 9 under in his first start as a PGA Tour member.
Young is playing this week in the Truist Championship, a Signature event at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. World No. 2 McIlroy makes his return to the Tour in his first event since winning the Masters.
