The maddening and mystifying case of Cameron Young | Golf Channel Podcast

In this week’s edition, the guys discuss all of the relevant storylines from the Rocket Mortgage Classic, including Cameron Young’s infuriating back nine, Akshay Bhatia’s emergence (and grace) and the subtle appeal of the full-field events. #GolfChannelPodcast #GolfChannel #pgatour

Chapters:
(0:00): Cameron Young’s back nine in Detroit a microcosm of his career to this point
(12:30): Akshay Bhatia three-putts final green to lose but continues to shine in new ways
(16:00): Rocket Mortgage Classic gets it right by leaning into youth movement
(21:30): USGA hits a home run with Newport CC but whiffs on no Brad Faxon exemption
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The maddening and mystifying case of Cameron Young | Golf Channel Podcast
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hello and welcome to this edition of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and lav Cam Davis is the winner of the rocket mortgage classic in a tournament I think Rex will be defined by oxay batia 72 whole three putt as well as the grace he showed afterward and the continued inability of Cameron young to notch his first career Victory on the PGA tour what stood out to you about the day what was pretty hectic over there in mowtown it it was it was actually uh three putt from what 34 feet his only three putt of the entire week a really really bad timing he felt like he was trending in that direction certainly the week before when he had done a Travelers Championship you thought that all right he he’s put himself through this before he had won on the PGA tour before of all the players that were in the mix coming down the stretch he’s the one I probably had the most confidence in so there was a bit of a surprise and you probably touched on it and I’m going to say this and I’m sure the folks in the comments section aren’t going to like it but as I watched the final round on Sunday I was taken by the idea that if you just parachuted in and I I didn’t tell you any context of what you were watching or what these people were doing on TV if you sat and watched Cameron young and Davis Thompson play golf you had to think that they were held being held against their will that they were doing this against their will I they were the most unhappy people I’ve ever seen on the planet and both of them played well well I’ll say Davis Thompson played well coming down the stretch to post a good finish was just what he needed at this point in the season cam young looked like he was about to do a murder suicide I mean let’s call it for what it is and he was aggravated I know he snapped his driver so that probably aggravated him he made a bunch of mental errors that probably aggravated him but if I just had to go out on a limp and tell you okay of all the things this robot could do with the golf ball and statistically he is amazing what he can do with the golf ball he’s one of the best ball Strikers in the game at the moment if you had to ask me why hasn’t he won on the PGA tour and why do we continue to have these conversations about him it has to be his attitude right and I think the the the crew on the CBS call kind of pointed it out that this is probably working against him at this point that you made a mistake and what the top players will do they’ll leave it behind and they’ll move on and they’ll find a way to overcome and adapt and either win or not win in this particular case it looked like he was done when he snapped his driver you could tell mentally he was finished he was not going to have a chance and that to me is amazing for a player at that level I wish I could reference the exact tweet uh and give proper credit but I saw on social media on Sunday night that that Cameron young is essentially Detroit era Matt Stafford a player who is immensely talented and yet can never win uh because either of the teammates around him or some of the the self-imposed mistakes that that that he makes and and Cameron young to me is that player like there is no disputing I think it’s inarguable at this point that he is the best player on the PJ tour without a vict Victory he is in historic territory and that he has seven runnerup finishes on the PJ tour without a win that’s the most since the PJ tour started keeping those statistics in 1983 and the thing about cam young that I’ve always found interesting is that in those final rounds in which he’s had uh those runner-up finishes he’s never shot worse than 70 so essentially he is just getting beat right like he’s not he’s not typically beating himself he’s not imploding in the final round like someone else think about cam young or Cam Smith in the 2022 open Championship like he just went out and shot 64 and that was the winner that day there wasn’t much that cam young could do about that but you have to think that it’s now beun to take a toll and you’re exactly right that he looks so miserable on the golf course he acknowledges that this has been an ongoing battle Camy young does and he’s talked a lot recently about working on the mental side and he thought that he’d been making strides in that aspect I think it’s indisputable that that Sunday in Detroit was a big time setback for whatever strides that he had made on the mental aspect shooting 38 on the back nine the snap driver on 14 he was one of the last in the field in putting on Sunday he missed four times inside 10 feet he had big misses uh with gap wedge that just couldn’t even hit the green and so at this stage of his career cam young reminds me a lot of Windham Clark a player who again immensely talented all the talented in the world it’s obvious to anyone who watches him but he’s mired in sort of Despair and he’s miserable on the golf of course because he was not meeting his own expectations what does Windam Clark do he links up with renowned sports psychologist Julia Elion and even though Windham Clark is not perfect now it’s not all of a sudden fixed and he knows how to to Really comport himself inside the ropes he at least has the tools now to be kinder to himself on the golf course I think it would really behoove cam young to sort of Follow that direction and seek some help he’s never going to be the happy go lucky AE baa inside the ropes right like that’s clearly not his personality he’s a very quiet guy I don’t think he’s necessarily mean-spirited or nasty that’s just sort of the player he morphs into inside the ropes I’d love to see someone help him to unlock the gifts that are just obvious to anyone who follows golf well and even in the post you know post round interview that Amanda did with Cam Davis it it was amazing him talking about the idea that he had gotten to a point where he didn’t feel like he was playing his best golf so he went to a hypnotherapist so it gives you an idea of the lengths that these players go to I think what we’ve seen really the last three weeks on the PGA tour is the mental impact that the the toll that the mental side of the game takes certainly you go back to Pinehurst with Roy maroy he does not miss those putts coming down the stretch that was 100% mental there was nothing technical about that 100% mental you look at last week well he was what 467 for 467 going into the 16th hole for putts inside 3et like there there’s nothing statistically that you can point at and say okay well he does this with his putting stroke so that makes him vulnerable in this situation no that’s not the case he almost he he almost whiffed the Putt in the 72 hole he hit it like top half of the Equator which is what he’s somewhat struggled against again that was a four that was a four foot slider he start technical that’s not technical that’s clearly a mental that’s clearly a mental side of the game like that’s that can’t be technical when you’re 466 67 467 for 467 on puts inside three feet that’s that’s a pretty good case study you have the stats out right there in front of you that nope I can do this I’m really really good at this it’s just I get in these situations and I start to feel the pressure you look at batia last week at The Travelers Championship clearly there were issues coming down the stretch where his game which is just filled with talent and so much promise just what didn’t seem comfortable in that situation and now you have this which was a perfect example of this player was in full flight he should have been the one that challenge for the title coming from the pack when you looked at the start of Sunday and you kind of broke it down he was the one that I pointed to and went yeah of course he’s going to be the one because again he’s a robot he puts himself into this position probably more than anyone else on the PGA tour certainly more than anyone else who hasn’t won on the PGA tour and yet somehow he’s not able to get it done and you’re right like he needs to probably take a step back and when you have a caddy of sort of the abilities of Paul Tori who was on Cam’s bag for a long time and Paul had been been on um web simpsons’s bag for a really long time he knows the mental side of the game he plays the game he understands it DJ’s bag who is one of the most demanding players of all time and now Tom kimb which is also brings its own set of challenges so like Paul has put himself in situations where he needs to use what he’s good at which is being able to put a player in a good head space despite the situation like take the sit situation out of it for Paul and not to be able to do whatever it is the magic that he does the secret sauce that he’s able to apply of these players I think that speaks volumes and I don’t know what happened in the relationship between Cam and Paul I I don’t know who decided to walk away from whom but it seems to me in this situation he needs a Paul toor he he needs a sports psychologist he needs a mental therapist uh whatever the case may be he needs something to get him over that hump because just his pure game alone clearly isn’t good enough I I know you you just you just hope that he will will do that self-reflection and and make those changes because he he really could be a multiple winner every season on the PG tour like that those are those are the obvious gifts that he possesses like after he snapped his driver I think every other player in the field would have been absolutely doomed that all of a sudden they were resigned to having to hit three-wood off the te for three of the remaining four holes the other one was was the par three and yet he still gave himself chances he’s still rocketing 3150 yard three woods with ball speeds in the upper 170s like it’s so obvious that he is this this immense talent and and again a sports Psy olist would not all of a sudden change cam Young’s personality that is not their job and I don’t think it would be it would come naturally to Camy young to do so it’s more just learning to give himself Grace it’s it’s pretty obvious that he that he runs hot and he puts a lot of pressure on himself he’s been groomed from a very young age to be a professional golfer is that as a longtime PJ professional he’s still his he’s still his swing coach his primary swing coach like there it is it’s probably clear that there is sort of a burden of expectation that lives on cam Young’s shoulders you just hope someone can give him the tools to kind of take a step back to have some sort of debrief and allow his skill set to shine more naturally than it is right now because it just looks painful uh to watch it looks like he’s miserable on the golf course again I don’t think he is miserable in the dealings that I’ve had with him personally I found him actually to be pretty accommodating uh and and pretty kind but it’s clear that he is morphing to a different in to a different player inside the ropes and it’s not helping him get to that next level I think that’s fair from the outside looking in you’re right it looks 100% like he’s miserable it looks like he’s being held against his will all of those things that we’ve made fun of him about I’m sure deep down on the inside there’s something churning that he has to enjoy this because there’s no way you put yourself through this if you don’t enjoy it I’ll go back to a conversation I had at Bay Hill with one of the officials from tgl the league that he’s going to be a part of and we were talking about the idea and I think we touched on this on the podcast last week that that has to be almost 100% entertainment like the competition part of that’s going to be such a small sliver like I’m curious about the technology but the actual competition side is just going to be a really small sliver and my question was does does Cam understand that does he understand that he’s he has to get on stage now that he he can’t be that guy that that walks around that looks like he’s being held against his will that can he walk around and he go like look they we’ve had these conversations with them and he has assured us that there is a side him that he’s looking forward to letting the world see so for no other reason I can’t wait to see that first match with Cam young because I’d love to see that side of him I think I’ve said this story before you’re right like on the golf course he doesn’t look like he’s enjoying himself that can’t be the case deep down in inside and I think I told the story it was two years ago at the Hero World Challenge and I think he was finishing up on a Saturday afternoon and I’d gone down to like the scoring area to talk to another player and he was he had finished up his rounds and he was signing autographs and I noticed how engaged was with the fans and they were laughing and like at this point now I’m kind of locked in like what what’s going on down here like who is this guy and he gets done signing the autographs and he sort of Sprints up the stairs to the clubhouse and there’s like a kid who had been at the end of the line he didn’t see him and he like yells his name and he like turns and the his face brightens and he runs back down the stairs and I’m like man where is that guy when he’s playing golf because I never see him on the golf course like at The Travelers championship in the third round when he shot 59 like that was not even a moment that allowed him to to exude Joy or happiness it was almost like a flip switch in his mind like now I’m heading into the final round of a Travelers Championship with with a with a shot to win the golf tournament like that’s what my focus is now and if I don’t do that the whole week’s going to be a disappointment again I like cam young personally I think a lot of his peers like cam young personally you just hope that probably during this offseason he can get some help and he comes in 2025 uh with sort of a a a different perspective a different Outlook a different inside the ropes comportment I did want to give a shout out Rex to OA baa who did play his last 11 holes the one over par the three putt on the 72nd Green from 32 feet missed a four-footer but OE 22 years old took five questions from the media afterward that of course is five more questions that Roy maroy got after his US Open defeat I’m not comparing the two players I’m not comparing the two events but I did want to give a shout out to oxy because that takes courage and that takes professionalism to do what he did after blowing the tournament in the manner in which he did at 22 to me he has such a long road ahead of him I think moves like this can really endear him to fans there’s a lot to like about him o turned pro at 17 remember he missed those seven consecutive cuts to start it took him three uh three years to get even on the corn fairy tour there was a lot of talk about this kid make a mistake not going to college is he going to flame out early he has really reinvented himself particularly with that long Putter and as he sits now on the PJ tour he’s ninth in Strokes gain total a very compete player complete player he is not without flaws I think we saw that on Sunday in Detroit but man what a fun Fearless uh kid who is already becoming a fan favorite although the President’s Cup rankings have not updated yet he was 13th I think I think he’s gonna move to sixth or seventh yeah like I’d love to see him on that American team as they start to build for the future even if it comes at expense of of some other veteran players I was taken even before the 72nd hole and fill in your own punchline however you want to do this I was taken watching him coming down the stretch of how much he plays the game like Phil Mickelson did and Phil michelson’s Prime because there there is a Grace there is a a poetry to his swing I do like him like watching him play golf however if you look at his stats he’s not the best driver of the golf ball he was clearly he was squarely middle of the pack going into Sunday last weekend I I think what what drives me is the idea that he plays the game the way Phil did though it’s a lot of feel it’s a lot of imagination when he gets on the greens you can see the the way the artist is coming out in them and then what happens on the 72 hole like you’re going to have these extremes when it comes to him one of the questions I think I pose you and I going on a round table later this morning on golf today one of the questions was is he the best under 25 player on the PGA tour and in my mind it it’s a competition between he and Tom Kim and we’ll probably picked that apart a little bit better later on this afternoon however like when you look at what he’s accomplished and you’re right in the amount of time he did it and how much he’s matured because I’ll go back to I had a couple conversations with him in San Antonio this year and I I just think he’s a different person he’s a different player certainly the Grayson Murray tragedy impacted him in a way that you you’re seeing him Focus those energies in a way that I didn’t see earlier in his career again 17y old kid you don’t expect to see him focusing energes very well but clearly he’s in a place now where I love watching him play golf because he’s sort of a little bit more refined a little bit quieter version of Phil Mickelson and I like that it’s entertaining to me I’ll have to chew on that topic I’ve got four hours to kill uh before our hit on golf today in which we will kick around whether oxa is the best player under 25 that’s a good one uh that could be a media discussion make sure you guys uh tune in around noon eastern time on Monday when Rex and I bat that one around Rex what did you think of the rocket mortgage classic in general to me heading into the week this was one of the tournaments that you and I were not particularly excited about I don’t think many fans were excited about uh it was it sort of seemed like the prime example of a tournament that the PJ tour could lose at really no expense to its overall product but I think what the week showed at Detroit golf club is that the PJ tour for these full field events what can happen when you lean into these younger players instead of the rank and file that exists on the PJ tour people will scream that that’s essentially just going to make the PJ tour full field events the corn fairy Tour on steroids but the but the the PJ tour’s middle class is like a known commodity we we know what they are they’ll bounce back and forth between the PJ tour and the corn faery tour they may pop up for you know a handful of top 25 finishes throughout the year but there really is no ST power but there’s so much potential in a Luke Clanton who spent the majority of the weekend inside the top five the rising Jr at Florida State there is so much potential there with Neil Shipley the low amateur at both the Masters and the US Open who was making his Pro debut last week in Detroit there certainly Rex is a lot of potential with a 15-year-old like miles Russell who played and made his PJ tour debut as well as Jackson quaven uh who is the NCAA player of the year from 2024 all four of those players were inside the field at the rocket mortgage classic as you zoom ahead this week to the John Deere classic you have Clinton you have Shipley you have Michael Thor bornon you have Cole Sherwood a standout player from Vanderbilt like this is what these fullfield events should be leaning into the future providing a Runway maybe one of them makes a run like Luke Clanton uh and it just makes uh what even though he’s returning to college it could make their professional uh debuts their first years on tour that much easier just giving them the experience as opposed to sort of just trotting out the the middle class the rank and file the bues whatever you want to call them I I didn’t want this pod to become a pre-show meeting but that’s what it’s going to become because one of the topics that I wanted to throw out there was the idea of something you touched on last week where you now that we can look back at the Signature Events this year you didn’t particularly like sort of the EB and flow of the schedule the Cadence of the schedule my my counter to that was yes I I will grant you that having the Mor Us opening Travelers in consecutive weeks does is not a recipe for a very very good golf what you end up with at the end of that road is really tired golfers who just want to go home and rest for a few weeks however the other side of that is what we had this weekend and to a certain degree what we’re going to have this week at the John Deere classic you’re absolutely right I mean these events delivered if the Signature Events ended up delivering what we wanted them to which was getting the top players together more often and we can both agree that happened I think the full field defense when you look at this the rocket mortgage class classic as a microcosm of what the tour was trying to do 100% delivered and I’m not even going to drill down as deep as you did with some of the amateurs that you refer to but Cam Davis winning clearly a young talented player we’ve already talked about batia young talented player minwu Lee Davis Thompson Eric Cole last year’s Rookie of the Year Cameron young Nick Dunlap all of these players are all inside the top 10 you’re right it’s probably not going to be the the tournament that your average golf fan tunes into excited wanting to see but it is is if you’re an if you’re an avid golf fan if you’re passionate about being part of the game then you’re going to watch this because you know what you’re seeing in that top 10 is going to end up on a leaderboard somewhere down the road Scottish open Open championship playoffs next year in the Signature Events somewhere along the line yeah exactly it doesn’t necessarily have to be the snapshot in time on June 30th it’s it’s projecting what could be like if you if you took a screen grab of what the leaderboard looked like with aay batia who was being chased down by Min Wy Davis Thompson uh Luke Clanton was inside the top five like that was a a dream scenario for the PG tour and what a full field event could be again the the the purists who who love and appreciate the tourist middle class and they want to see the the mat cooers and the the web Simpsons of the world like I get that and there’s probably an Avenue uh for that too but the full field events should really lean into these young players and giving them the starts and the opportunities The Travelers championship before it became a signature event always leaned into the young players the John classic throughout its history Jordan Speed among them has always given opportunities young players to to get their start there’s has always done that yeah that have done that and I I I get now it’s easier to do that because the college season is over but you’d love to see more tournaments take that approach sort of cherry pick the best players the best young players in the corn fairy tour and give him tour starts as well hats off the rocket mortgage classic I do think actually will we’ll see a similar leaderboard unfold this week for the John Deer classic is there anything else Rex you wanted to get into before we go uh and wrap up this recap podcast I did I was really really curious to see Newport Country Club which hosted the US Senior Open this week just because it’s such a cool layout I had the opportunity to play it once it’s one of those great classic American Golf Course so I wanted to tune in but and it’s finishing up today on Monday what we saw for at least the first three days under perfect conditions is exactly what I think the US GA does really well where they’re willing to go back to these classic venues and and set them up in a way that can make it competitive to the modern Pro even the modern over 50 Pro however I will say this I have not given the USGA many Bogies along the way certainly the last few years certainly since Mike Wan took over and we both agree that he’s a dynamic and very interesting leader on this the USGA clearly bogied and I only say this in our our colleague Amon Lynch last week on golf today brought it up and as I’m watching The Telecast this weekend and listening to the passion and Brad faxon’s Voice who was a member at Newport Country Club he had hoped to get a special invitation into the Senior Open they did not give him a special invitation to the uh us Senior Open I think that’s a huge whiff I think there’s a reason why you have these opportunities to fill out a 156 player field he’s not really going to take a spot from someone else and the passion that Brad has for this golf course and this area and how important he’s been to New England golf I think that’s a huge Boge uh very fair did seem like a a eyebrow raising Omission uh by the USGA I’m sure they had their justifications uh I’ve yet to see a very good one uh in print uh but but I’m with you again this is the US Senior Open it’s not like they’re you know being inundated with with requests and certainly that one made a lot of sense again that uh res the resumption of the final round begin shortly over there on Golf Channel and peacock we tuning in Newport Country Club does look like a golf course I need to play again Rex you and I will be on golf today in about three hours time that’s why we’re keeping this podcast shorter than usual where we’ll be bandying about a number of other topics you and I will also be back for the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and lav on Wednesday for a full preview of the John Deere classic where I’m sure we’ll be leaning hard into the Jordan Speed storyline uh has not played that tournament in a number of years the deer of course launched his career in 2013 with that dramatic hole out to win his first event on the PJ tour when he was off and running we’ll do that on Wednesday in the meantime you guys know the drill nbcsports.com golf for our latest news notes and updates talk to you guys in about 48 hours or so thanks for listening thanks for the support see you then you got it that time