Cam Young was watching the disaster unfold, when he said five words, across three sentences.
“Stop.”
“Down grain.”
“Down grain.”
You may have wanted to say something else.
In a disastrous sequence during Saturday’s Tournament of Champions third round, Young putted for eagle from 56 feet, 7 inches behind the hole on the 527-yard, par-5 15th on the Plantation Course at Kapalua. Then he pitched from 150 feet, 11 inches below the hole, from the fairway. His putt had traveled, unfortunately for him, just over 200 feet.
Then he pitched his fourth shot short of the green, too, and it trickled back to his feet.
“Oh my goodness,” analyst Paul Azinger said on the NBC broadcast. “Wow.”
Indeed. Notably, things started promisingly. Young was home in two on the par-5, though his ball had a tricky right-to-left, downhill path, and as he relayed twice, the green was down grain. He started those comments when his putt was about 10 feet from the hole.
From there, the ball slid past, got caught slightly in the fringe, then rolled down to the fairway. In all, his eagle putt traveled about 150 feet farther than it needed to.
“Wow,” Azinger said on the broadcast. “That — really it’s like a jolt to your system when something like that happens to you as a player. It’s embarrassing and you have a blood rush from that one.”
Then came shot four, which Young dropped just over the fringe on the front of the green, and that, too, rolled back. Notably, playing partner Keegan Bradley had just suffered a similar fate moments earlier.
“I’ll say it again,” Azinger said on the broadcast, “that is probably the most difficult place to pitch from on the PGA Tour — straight into the grain; you have to go up a hill.”
On shot five, Young was done with the slope; he punched his pitch, it finished about 12 feet past the hole and finished 6 feet away. From there, he one-putted for a bogey six, and he finished with a four-under 69.
Admirably on 15, Young just gave his putter to his caddie, Chad Reynolds, and walked to the 16th tee.
“It’s just a matter of time before he breaks through,” Azinger said of Young, who, though winless, was the PGA Tour rookie of the year last season and played on the Presidents Cup team.
“Made the Presidents Cup team. Every player in that locker room wanted to be paired with Cam Young.”
