KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Cameron Young closed out a wire-to-wire win on Sunday at the AdventHealth Championship and in the process became the first player to do so since 2018 on the Korn Ferry Tour. Young topped South African Dawie van der Walt by two strokes at 19-under 269 at Blue Hills Country Club.
“It's hard kind of to work through them at the moment, to be honest,” said Young of the emotions after his maiden victory. “Obviously the last hour or so I probably had a good feeling I was going to win, but it's hard to get through those last few holes and, you know, hit the shots that I needed to hit. I was a little bit squirrelly down the stretch.”
A day after beginning his round with nine consecutive pars, Young enjoyed an adventurous scorecard on the front nine on Sunday. After two birdies in his first three holes, Young went bogey-birdie-birdie-bogey from Nos. 5-8 to make the turn at 2-under on the day. He held a four-stroke lead early on the back nine before tacking on birdies at the 13th and 17th down the stretch. No one seriously threatened him on the back nine, though van der Walt birdied five of his last six holes to rise to solo second.
Ten months ago, Young had no status on the Korn Ferry Tour and nowhere to play as the pandemic shut down various mini tours and qualifiers. He Monday qualified into the Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna last July and proceeded to go on a four-tournament stretch that changed his career. He finished T11 that week and earned finishes of T14-T6-T2 over the next three weeks to earn Special Temporary Membership. Young joined Will Zalatoris and Davis Riley (both in 2019) as the only three players to earn Special Temporary Membership over the past two seasons.
“Yeah, I mean, it's been all good things,” reflected Young of his journey over the past year. “There's been so much new stuff that at times it's been a little overwhelming, especially at first. Like all of a sudden showing up to my fifth or sixth event and being allowed to come play, because for a while it was really unattainable. Playing Monday qualifiers and shooting 4- and 5- and 6-under a lot and you just don't even have a chance with those scores a lot of the time. So yeah, it's been a grind, for sure.”
With the win, Young became the first player to go wire to wire (defined as a solo lead after each round) since Kramer Hickok at the 2018 DAP Championship. Through the week he played the par-5s at 13-under and led the field in driving distance. He now ranks inside the top-10 in driving distance on Tour and top-12 in par-5 scoring average.
For van der Walt, a 38-year-old, the runner-up finish was his highest finish since winning twice in 2015. Zach Wright, a former LSU star, matched the low round of the day at 8-under 64 to rise to third.
Next week the Korn Ferry Tour will head to the Evans Scholars Invitational presented by First Midwest Bank outside of Chicago.
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May 24, 2021 at 06:11AM
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Cameron Young earns wire-to-wire victory at AdventHealth Championship - pgatour.com
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