Cameron Young believes he failed. No, he revealed, he hadn’t been patient in his hunt for PGA Tour win No. 1. He’d let it get to him.
But he was improving.
“I feel like right now I’m in a really nice place mentally,” he said. “I’ve had really good control over my thoughts and emotions this week. They have definitely got the better of me at times, but I feel like I’m in a really nice place and I’m just trying to hit each shot the best I can.”
That reflection came Saturday at the Valspar Championship, where Young was tied for fifth through three rounds, three strokes out of the lead.
But that was Saturday, where things may not be as taxing.
They play Sunday, too, and that’s the day you make your money.
The Young story, to this point, can be considered a couple of ways. Through two-plus seasons and 60 tournaments on the PGA Tour, he’s been mostly all that you’d want out of a burgeoning star. Fourteen-million bucks in earnings. A Presidents Cup appearance. Forty-seven of 60 cuts made.
But revisit this story’s first paragraph. Young’s winless. He’s still still searching, agonizingly so.
Consider:
— He tied for second at the 2021 Sanderson Farms Championship, where he shot no higher than 68, but finished a shot back of winner Sam Burns.
— He tied for second at the 2022 Genesis Invitational, where he shot a second-round 62, but finished two back of winner Joaquin Niemann.
— He tied for second at the 2022 Wells Fargo Championship, where he shot a final-round 66, but finished two back of winner Max Homa.
— He finished runner-up at the 2022 Open Championship thanks to a final-round 65, but finished one back of winner Cameron Smith.
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— He tied for second at the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic, where Tony Finau won by five.
— He was runner-up at last year’s WGC-Match Play, losing in the final to Burns.
Added together, that’s six runners-up ahead of the Valspar, which was notable. Going back to 1983, according to the PGA Tour, only two other players (Colin Montgomerie and Briny Baird) had finished second as many times without winning.
After Sunday, Young stood alone.
He tried. He rallied. With one hole to go at Innisbrook, he was tied for the lead. But Peter Malnati, in the group behind him, birdied the 17th. And Young bogeyed the 18th, following a pulled tee shot and a three putt. And that was that. Malnati was your winner. Young was second again.
And you maybe wondered whether all the thoughts-and-emotions talk from Saturday was just fluff.
Afterward, a reporter asked Young what he was proud of. Two late strokes, he said. The par-3 15th and the par-3 17th test players, but Young safely dropped both tee shots within 20 feet and parred both. “I think I handled my own thoughts really well, and, for me, that’s a big win regardless of the outcome,” he said.
So far, so good.
He was then asked about the emotions. He’d also mentioned them Saturday.
Below is Young’s answer.
And if you’re questioning whether he can conquer an item that he believes is blocking him, Young at least sounded like he can. After all, he was more focused on a few other folks.
Here is his complete exchange with a reporter:
“You had talked all week about how well you handled your emotions. What are the emotions like right now?”
“Um, I don’t know,” he said. “Honestly, I realized I wasn’t going to win pretty quickly, and I have a four-hour drive home with a 1- and a 2-year-old, so whatever emotions are attached to that.”