Confessions of a Cameron Young Addict

After his starring appearance on “Lunch with The Boys” earlier this week, I thought it was only fair to follow our first-ever guest, Cameron Young, for a good chunk of these first three days at the 2025 U.S. Open.

For those of you who don’t religiously follow Young Cam on a weekly basis (you should start!), let me clue you in on some statistical developments. He’s still pounding the ball off the tee – 44th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and 22nd in driving distance on the PGA Tour –  but has seen a complete 180 from the rest of his game. Young has gone from a slightly above-average iron player in 2024 – 87th in SG: Approach – to basically abysmal, sitting 165th of 179 players in the same statistic this year. What’s been good, though? The putting! After two straight seasons of ranking near the bottom of the Tour, Young is 16th in SG: Putting. He told us on Tuesday that he’s made simple changes focusing on alignment, and whatever it is, it’s working.

Thursday’s round started perfectly with a birdie on his first hole, the 10th. It was up-and-down from there, per usual, but Cameron got it in the house with an even-par 70, good for T-11. Friday’s 74 was less ideal, but he wasn’t out of it yet and had a Saturday tee time with Scottie Scheffler. Naturally, I was excited by this development. Scottie would get to play with the best player in the world!

Maybe it was the lights of the marquee pairing, maybe it was a softer Oakmont Country Club, or maybe it was a Space Jam talent-swap situation, but Young beat Scheffler on Saturday. More importantly, he did it with his irons. Young ranked fifth in the field in SG: Approach for the third round, hitting 17 of 18 greens in regulation – the most by any player in any round this week. Amazingly, unfortunately, and sadly, the putter that has been so good didn’t quite follow. Yeah, the 69 made for a nice day, but there were plenty of missed opportunities. Two three-putts on the front nine led to bogeys, including one on the par-5 fourth. There was a missed 10-footer after a dart on the par-3 13th, after which the normally stoic Young let a wonderful expletive rip into the Pittsburgh air. Honestly, even the 21-foot miss on 18 to end the day could qualify as a lost shot. Waiting all year for the irons to come around and having them show up on Saturday of the U.S. Open just for the putter to go cold is a tough pill to swallow.

Headed into Sunday at Oakmont, Young is T-9, seven shots back of the lead. Is he too far back to win it all? Probably. Through three rounds, I really think this has been a missed opportunity for true contention at this major championship, much less just securing a first PGA Tour win. But my confession, and maybe this is the addiction talking, is that I’m pretty sure there’s light at the end of this tunnel. Next week, Young heads to the Travelers Championship, site of his career-low round of 59 at last year’s event at TPC River Highlands. The week after that? He could play at Detroit Golf Club for the Rocket Mortgage Classic, an event he finished second at in 2022 and contended at last year before snapping his driver on the 14th hole on Sunday (he still finished tied for sixth). Mock me all you want, but this first victory is coming soon. Here’s to hoping the wait will make it that much sweeter.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

{{inline-course}}