{"id":45213,"date":"2026-08-01T15:56:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T15:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/45213\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T15:56:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T15:56:38","slug":"rocket-classic-2026-cameron-young-fires-61-sets-pace-in-motown-with-patrick-cantlay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/45213\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Classic 2026: Cameron Young fires 61, sets pace in Motown with Patrick Cantlay"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Cameron Young needed was that putter to heat up a little. <\/p>\n

A day after Peter Malnati tied the Detroit Golf Club\u2019s record-low score <\/a>for a single round, Young matched it with a 9-under 61 of his own during Friday\u2019s second round of the Rocket Classic. <\/p>\n

Young, propelled by a string of six consecutive birdies on his first nine, shot up 68 spots on the leaderboard. He sits tied for the lead with Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Fishburn<\/a> after 36 holes in Motown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like I had a 10-footer for birdie on pretty much every hole,\u201d Young said after his round.<\/p>\n

Young was asked about the newly-renovated course where a couple of par-5 holes were converted into par 4s and added a lot of bunkers. The work was done to make the course more challenging, as well as restore architect Donald Ross\u2019 vision for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little bit of wind, but mostly [the new greens]. Frankly, they were beautiful this morning. Like with a touch of moisture, they\u2019re just \u2014 there\u2019s no sand, there\u2019s no bumps in them until really late in the round,\u201d said Young. \u201cWith any moisture in the morning they\u2019re perfect. Then later in the day, eventually they\u2019re going to get chewed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young saw that yesterday when he went off in the afternoon, carding an underwhelming 1-under 69 as the pre-tournament favorite<\/a> and world\u2019s No. 3-ranked player. <\/p>\n

He came to Detroit rested after finishing runner-up at The Open, which Ryan Fox won with a birdie on the 18th hole<\/a> while Young could only watch from the clubhouse<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of the main difficulty of golf,\u201d said the 2026 Players champ about the difference between round to round and event to event.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you feel like that, it\u2019s difficult to some extent,\u201d Young added. \u201cYou wonder, am I missing something, why is this the way that it is, why is it not working, all those things. But 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\u2019s going to get harder and at some point you\u2019ll come out of that difficult period and it will feel easy again. It\u2019s kind of just a game of being ready for whatever comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"image<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s Moving Day in Motown as Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay and a slew of other competitors vie for the Rocket Classic crown.<\/p>\n

\u2018Pretty mediocre so far\u2019<\/p>\n

Cantlay said the course \u201cplayed pretty easy\u201d and bemoaned a slow start but was happy to put himself in position for his first win since August 2022\u2019s BMW Championship with a 64-66 to open his time in the Motor City.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty mediocre so far but golf\u2019s funny,\u201d Cantlay said of his 2026 campaign that has included three T-10s. \u201cYou can change your whole season in a week or two. I feel like my game\u2019s been heading in the right direction and I\u2019ve been working hard, so I\u2019m pretty optimistic about the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cantlay, who is 17th in U.S. Presidents Cup points, told reporters after his round he was trying to stay focused on the next two days. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it\u2019s a huge goal of mine,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

But right now? There\u2019s only one goal for Cantlay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWins can happen fast. You can get on a run and start playing well,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to believe that that\u2019s right around the corner. With the momentum I feel like I\u2019ve been having in my game the last few months, it wouldn\u2019t surprise me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The third round of the Rocket Classic is underway at the Detroit Golf Club in Detroit, Mich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Cameron Young needed was that putter to heat up a little. A day after Peter Malnati tied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[685],"class_list":["post-45213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cameron-young","tag-cameron-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}