Cameron Young felt like he made 'a billion feet of putts,' leads at Doral

DORAL, Fla. — If Cameron Young’s putter was as hot during the final round of the Masters as it was on Thursday in the opening round of the Cadillac Championship , he’d be wearing a Green Jacket instead of Rory McIlroy. On a warm, sunny day, Young needed oven mitts to hold his putter.

He holed nearly 100 feet of putts, made eight birdies and was perfect in scrambling on his way to a bogey-free 8-under 64 at Trump National Doral’s Blue Monster to take a one-shot lead over Jordan Spieth. “I saw a few go in early and it was one of those days,” said Young, who tied his lowest score of the year on the PGA Tour. “I just had a really nice feel for the greens today.

” Young, the winner of the Players Championship in March, already has three top-5 finishes this season and has surged to No. 3 in the world. Last season, he turned his putting from a weakness into a strength.

This season, his improved iron play has keyed his latest leap forward. Young is the only player on the Tour to rank outside the Top 100 in SG: Approach-the-Green (129th), greens in regulation (159th), and proximity to hole (T141) in 2025 and inside the top 20 this season in all three categories in 2026 (SG: Approach-the-Green (18th), GIR (T15), and proximity to hole (2nd)). At the Wyndham Championship in August, which happened to be the week of his first career win, Young switched to a Titleist Pro V1x prototype (Double Dot), which gave him better distance control with his irons and wedges.