Updated July 31, 2026, 3:09 p.m. ET
DETROIT — Hundreds of fans stood silent at the third hole of Detroit Golf Club as the sun baked down on the morning’s most-watched golfer.
Cameron Young stepped into the box, shuffled his legs four times and raised his driver into his trademark pause before bombing a ball down the fairway.
“It just sounds different coming from him,” a spectator said.
More: 2026 Rocket Classic leaderboard, projected cut, live updates from Detroit Golf Club
After comparatively struggling through his first round, going 1 under Thursday, Young dominated the second round of the 2026 Rocket Classic on Friday, July 31, at Detroit Golf Club.
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He went 9 under for the day, tying the course record of 61 (the second golfer in as many days to do so), and finished at 10 under in a tie for first at the end of the morning session with Patrick Cantlay, who shot a 4 under in the second round.
“It felt like I had a 10-footer for birdie on pretty much every hole. Yeah, I made a bunch of them in a row on the front nine, or on the back nine, my first nine. Then the putter kind of went cold a little bit for my second nine,” he said. “Just really solid golf all the way through. Happy to have kind of played my way back in the tournament a little bit after yesterday.”
The world No. 3 Young birdied seven of his first eight holes on the back nine to start his day (including six in a row from 12-17) to quickly vault himself back into the top 4, one stroke off Peter Malnati, who tied the course record in the first round on Thursday. Young came within inches of surpassing Malnati on his 13th hole, just missing an eagle putt in the front nine. His birdie tap-in put him at 8 under for the day and brought him even at the top with Malnati, while a birdie on his 17th hole of the day brought him to the top of the leaderboard with Cantlay.
Despite a historic round, Young did not take command of the tournament, as Patrick Cantlay birdied his 14th hole to bring him to 10 under. After shooting 6 under on Thursday, the California native shot 4 under on Friday to earn a share of the tournament lead at the end of the morning session, tied with Young one stroke ahead of Malnati.
But despite great performances on back-to-back days for Cantlay, neither matched the brilliance of Young on Friday.
Young is no stranger to dominating courses, either on the Tour or in Detroit. He comes in with two tournament wins this season (The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass and the Cadillac Championship at Doral) and finished second at The Open Championship behind New Zealander Ryan Fox. He also finished second in his first year at the Rocket Classic in 2022 (21 under) and sixth in his second year in 2024 (15 under).
“It’s a place I’ve liked coming,” he said in a pre-tournament news conference on Tuesday. “I like the golf course. I think, like I said earlier, the changes they made are cool.”
Young said the updates made as part of a $16.1 million renovation made the course visually “far more dramatic” and that the added bunkers and expanded greens would provide a bigger challenge. A windy afternoon on Thursday proved that to be true for Young’s first round, but he quickly rounded into form on Friday, proving why he’s one of the best golfers on the Tour.
“When it goes well, it feels totally the opposite. When it goes well, it feels like you never will play bad again. It just comes and goes. You kind of have to be ready for either one. At some point it’s going to get harder and at some point you’ll come out of that difficult period and it will feel easy again,” he said after Friday’s round. “It’s kind of just a game of being ready for whatever comes next.”
Like every golfer at the Rocket, this may be Young’s final time participating in a Tour event in Detroit, at least for a while. But he lamented that possibility on Tuesday after a practice round on the back nine.
“I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen with the venue, but it’s been a great host,” he said Tuesday. “If there’s a chance to come back in the future, it’s certainly somewhere that I would look at coming back.”
Considering how excellent he has looked here over the years, his fondness for the event is not much of a surprise.
You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.