Friday wasn’t just a fluke. It wasn’t merely a jolt of energy from Cameron Young, the Westchester County native making his Ryder Cup debut.
After securing a point for Team USA during four-ball Friday afternoon, Young remained in the lineup Saturday morning for foursomes and proceeded to pair with Bryson DeChambeau for a 4 & 2 victory over Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludvig Åberg — which served as the Americans’ only point of the morning.
He became the first Team USA player to win the first two matches of his career, with both by at least four points, since Patrick Reed in 2014.
Only three Americans (Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Ted Kroll) have won their first three Ryder Cup matches by at least four holes, and Young couldn’t become the fourth after a 2-down loss to Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry with Justin Thomas.
“This is the kind of stuff you dream of,” Young said following the morning session, “and we’ve performed well over the last couple days, and having gotten a few points on the board is pretty awesome.”
It wasn’t a guarantee that Young, 28, would even be on the roster this year, but his performances at tournaments over the summer helped him earn a selection as one of captain Keegan Bradley’s rookies.
That, in a way, made him a wild card, even though he already knew the Bethpage course well.
Young continued dazzling from the first hole Saturday, sending his pairing’s second shot to within 11 inches on the hole.
His chip on the third hole gave them a 1-up lead. His putt on the seventh gave the advantage back, and his tee shot on the par-3 eighth landed within feet of the pin.
“Cam played unbelievable today,” DeChambeau said.
Young has quickly become Team USA’s most prolific golfer this weekend with Scottie Scheffler struggling and others inconsistent — though Young acknowledged that he wasn’t at his best in the afternoon.
And it has become a fitting development given that he grew up in Scarborough, played at Sleepy Hollow Country Club and previously held the Bethpage Black course record (64 in the 2017 New York State Open) before Brooks Koepka broke it with a 63 at the 2019 PGA Championship.
It took until the second session of matches for Young to get his Ryder Cup chance.
But it didn’t take long for him to already become an indispensable piece.
“He was so ready for this,” his mother, Barbara, told noti.group’s Mark Cannizzaro on Saturday. “I knew he was going to play well.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
