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PGA Tour pro Sahith Theegala has played with his share of talented golfers but he counts Cameron Young as one of the few who has every shot in the bag.
“He can curve it both ways, he can hit it far and all of a sudden he’s one of the best putters in the game,” Theegala tells Golfweek. “He practices at Panther National (in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.,) and when I see him there, sometimes I just stop and watch him hit balls because he’s that good.”
Theegala made those comments shortly before Young won the Players Championship in March, and predicted that when things clicked for Young, he and his fellow pros would be in a world of trouble. That came to fruition at Trump Doral National, where Young closed in 4-under 68 on Sunday to blitz the field by six shots at the Cadillac Championship in Doral, Fla., a suburb of Miami, and win for the second time on the PGA Tour this season.
Last season, as Theegala mentioned, Young turned his putting from a weakness into a strength. This season, the 28-year-old Wake Forest University alum’s improved iron play has keyed his latest leap forward. Young is the only player on the Tour to rank outside the Top 100 in SG: Approach-the-Green (129th), greens in regulation (159th), and proximity to hole (T141) in 2025 and inside the top 20 this season in all three categories (2026: SG: Approach-the-Green (18th), GIR (T15), and proximity to hole (2nd). At the Wyndham Championship in August, which happened to be the week of his maiden win, Young switched to a Titleist Pro V1x prototype (Double Dot), which gave him better distance control with his irons and wedges.
“I think it started then probably,” he said. “That's been a big factor.”
On Thursday, Young holed nearly 100 feet of putts, made eight birdies and was perfect in scrambling on his way to a bogey-free 8-under 64 to seize the lead.
“I feel like I made a billion feet of putts, which I think works most places,” said Young, who noted he also made a couple of long-range putts from the fringe. “Every time my ball got near the hole it seemed to want to go in today.”
That continued for most of the tournament as Young ranked second in Strokes Gained: Putting for the week. Summing up his putting performance, he added, “I made all the ones that you feel like you're supposed to make and then I've had a good few on top of that from 15 to 30 feet, which is a nice relief when those go in.”
Young followed with rounds of 67 and 70 to open a six-stroke lead going into the final round. But he had to play in the final group with Scottie Scheffler. Young was unfazed. Not even calling a penalty stroke on himself at the second hole, where he couldn’t be sure if he made his ball move, could sabotage his momentum. He stuck the landing on an 8-iron and rolled in the putt for par. On a day when morning showers softened the course and led to the final round being played under preferred lies, Young birdied Nos. 3, 5 and 8 to extend his lead to seven. “His patience is almost irritatingly good,” said CBS’s Frank Nobilo.
The mental side of the game has been the final ingredient in Young’s evolution into one of the top players in the game and on the short list for the hottest player in the world. Young projects a stoic demeanor on the outside, but he can run hot on the inside and had developed a habit of being his own worst enemy.
“When you have somebody who is as talented as Cam, who can hit all the shots with great majesty, the next shot is the next battle, not the last shot,” said Young’s mental coach, Dr. Bhrett McCabe. “I tell him, ‘Don't beat yourself up on what went wrong, why it went wrong, let's move on.’ ”
That philosophy has served Young well. On Sunday, with President Donald Trump in attendance at the club he owns, Young made bogeys at Nos. 11 and 13 but bounced back with birdies at 12, 15 and 16 and clipped Scheffler (68), the world No. 1 by a touchdown. Ben Griffin (68) was a shot back in third, and Adam Scott, who tied for the low round of the day with 64, played bogey-free on the weekend for the first time since 2017, and finished T-4 with Si Woo Kim and Sepp Straka.
It took Young 93 Tour starts before he secured his first victory, 10 to win his second and just three to grab his third trophy after taming the famed Blue Monster course, shooting 19-under 269. He also went wire-to-wire, joining Justin Rose at the Farmers Insurance Open as the only players to do so this season, and the first at Doral since Andy Bean in 1977. Three wins in Young's last 14 starts is not too shabby.
“This was not his ‘A game,’ and that's the scary part,” Nobilo said of Young’s third-round 70. "His ceiling is extremely high.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Cameron Young wins Cadillac Championship 2026 for third PGA Tour win
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“He can curve it both ways, he can hit it far and all of a sudden he’s one of the best putters in the game,” Theegala tells Golfweek. “He practices at Panther National (in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.,) and when I see him there, sometimes I just stop and watch him hit balls because he’s that good.”
Theegala made those comments shortly before Young won the Players Championship in March, and predicted that when things clicked for Young, he and his fellow pros would be in a world of trouble. That came to fruition at Trump Doral National, where Young closed in 4-under 68 on Sunday to blitz the field by six shots at the Cadillac Championship in Doral, Fla., a suburb of Miami, and win for the second time on the PGA Tour this season.
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Last season, as Theegala mentioned, Young turned his putting from a weakness into a strength. This season, the 28-year-old Wake Forest University alum’s improved iron play has keyed his latest leap forward. Young is the only player on the Tour to rank outside the Top 100 in SG: Approach-the-Green (129th), greens in regulation (159th), and proximity to hole (T141) in 2025 and inside the top 20 this season in all three categories (2026: SG: Approach-the-Green (18th), GIR (T15), and proximity to hole (2nd). At the Wyndham Championship in August, which happened to be the week of his maiden win, Young switched to a Titleist Pro V1x prototype (Double Dot), which gave him better distance control with his irons and wedges.
“I think it started then probably,” he said. “That's been a big factor.”
On Thursday, Young holed nearly 100 feet of putts, made eight birdies and was perfect in scrambling on his way to a bogey-free 8-under 64 to seize the lead.
“I feel like I made a billion feet of putts, which I think works most places,” said Young, who noted he also made a couple of long-range putts from the fringe. “Every time my ball got near the hole it seemed to want to go in today.”
That continued for most of the tournament as Young ranked second in Strokes Gained: Putting for the week. Summing up his putting performance, he added, “I made all the ones that you feel like you're supposed to make and then I've had a good few on top of that from 15 to 30 feet, which is a nice relief when those go in.”
Young followed with rounds of 67 and 70 to open a six-stroke lead going into the final round. But he had to play in the final group with Scottie Scheffler. Young was unfazed. Not even calling a penalty stroke on himself at the second hole, where he couldn’t be sure if he made his ball move, could sabotage his momentum. He stuck the landing on an 8-iron and rolled in the putt for par. On a day when morning showers softened the course and led to the final round being played under preferred lies, Young birdied Nos. 3, 5 and 8 to extend his lead to seven. “His patience is almost irritatingly good,” said CBS’s Frank Nobilo.
The mental side of the game has been the final ingredient in Young’s evolution into one of the top players in the game and on the short list for the hottest player in the world. Young projects a stoic demeanor on the outside, but he can run hot on the inside and had developed a habit of being his own worst enemy.
“When you have somebody who is as talented as Cam, who can hit all the shots with great majesty, the next shot is the next battle, not the last shot,” said Young’s mental coach, Dr. Bhrett McCabe. “I tell him, ‘Don't beat yourself up on what went wrong, why it went wrong, let's move on.’ ”
That philosophy has served Young well. On Sunday, with President Donald Trump in attendance at the club he owns, Young made bogeys at Nos. 11 and 13 but bounced back with birdies at 12, 15 and 16 and clipped Scheffler (68), the world No. 1 by a touchdown. Ben Griffin (68) was a shot back in third, and Adam Scott, who tied for the low round of the day with 64, played bogey-free on the weekend for the first time since 2017, and finished T-4 with Si Woo Kim and Sepp Straka.
It took Young 93 Tour starts before he secured his first victory, 10 to win his second and just three to grab his third trophy after taming the famed Blue Monster course, shooting 19-under 269. He also went wire-to-wire, joining Justin Rose at the Farmers Insurance Open as the only players to do so this season, and the first at Doral since Andy Bean in 1977. Three wins in Young's last 14 starts is not too shabby.
“This was not his ‘A game,’ and that's the scary part,” Nobilo said of Young’s third-round 70. "His ceiling is extremely high.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Cameron Young wins Cadillac Championship 2026 for third PGA Tour win
Continue reading...
