Thanks to his series of breakthroughs on the game\u2019s biggest stages \u2014 his long-awaited first Tour win at the 2025 Wyndham; a starring role a month later at the Ryder Cup; victory at this year\u2019s Players and a validating follow-up win at the Cadillac Championship; his ascent to World No. 3 \u2014 something has changed.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s being asked better questions and giving more interesting answers. The door has cracked open a bit wider, offering glimpses of the 29-year-old on the rise, of where he came from and how he now finds himself among the game\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cam_logos-scaled.jpg\")
\n Young poses for photos at Dutchman\u2019s Pipe in West Palm Beach, Fla.<\/p>\n
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Michael Schwartz<\/p>\n
YOUNG\u2019S ORIGIN STORY will make you nostalgic for a childhood you never even had. You can picture how he would have looked: the little kid at the big golf club, chasing his ball into the fading sun, not a care in the world besides impending dusk, night after night after night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a dream place to grow up,\u201d Young says. <\/p>\n
That dream place was Sleepy Hollow Country Club, where his father, David, took the head pro job when his son was three or four. <\/p>\n
\u201cBy that point, I already loved going out there and smacking it around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sleepy, as it\u2019s known, is a landmark club just north of New York City, famous for its Golden Age course design, Vanderbilt-mansion clubhouse and entrancing Hudson River views. It\u2019s rarefied turf, but Young felt welcomed from the start. His father or his mother (Barbara, an accomplished player too) would take him out to play nearly every evening, and he could chase to his heart\u2019s content.<\/p>\n
About a decade into his dad\u2019s tenure, the family moved on property, into a house off the fourth hole of Sleepy\u2019s nine-hole short course. Cam developed a ritual: He\u2019d take the train home from school, change into his golf clothes and head straight out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d get out on the course as much as I could, especially late in the afternoon \u2014 see how many holes we could play,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most beautiful pieces of [land] you could ever find.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continues to get membership emails. That\u2019s how he knows about the occasional watch parties and clubhouse meetups supporting the kid who climbed to the top \u2014 even as every rung of the ladder brings a reminder that he\u2019s not that kid anymore.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cam_dad.jpg\")
\n Cameron and his father, David.<\/p>\n
Courtesy Cameron Young<\/p>\n
A YEAR AGO AT THIS TIME, Young\u2019s career was still defined \u2014 at least publicly \u2014 by what he hadn\u2019t quite accomplished. He\u2019d jacked up expectations with a red-hot rookie year in 2022 but still hadn\u2019t been able to win a PGA Tour event. Sure, he\u2019d almost gotten across the line, dating back to that Rookie of the Year campaign and its extremely near-misses at the PGA Championship and Open Championship as part of a season with seven top-three finishes. But no dice. He also hadn\u2019t made a Ryder Cup team, and even that omission barely registered. When the 2023 U.S. team was announced, the spotlighted snub in Netflix\u2019s Full Swing was Keegan Bradley, who\u2019d finished 11th in qualifying, while Young, 9th in the standings, was passed over with significantly less fanfare.<\/p>\n
By those lofty standards, he floundered in the years that followed, sliding from top 15 in the world to outside the top 50. By early 2025, he was off the Ryder Cup radar for Bethpage Black, the course and career goal he\u2019d circled since high school.<\/p>\n
But then he made changes \u2014 some essential, others sharpened by experience \u2014 that added up to something special.<\/p>\n
Young changed caddies. After shuffling through a series of more established loopers, he passed his bag to Wake Forest pal Kyle Sterbinsky. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome of it is just grinding through tougher times and finding better ones,\u201d Young said at the time. \u201c[Kyle is] one of my best friends, a college teammate, and he\u2019s great at reading greens.\u201d Whatever the alchemy, the results were immediate: his putting stats soared, as did his iron play \u2014 and his scores dropped accordingly.<\/p>\n
Young changed ballflights. Rather, he committed to a single ballflight. Instead of adjusting from shot to shot, he decided to lean into the draw he\u2019d grown up with around Sleepy, a return to his swing DNA. \u201cYou watched Tiger in his prime and he hit all of them. Every shot,\u201d Young says. \u201cAnd, in theory, if you want to be as good as you can be, you want to be able to hit every shot. But for most people, it probably just isn\u2019t practical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young tweaked his mindset too, choosing to think bigger picture and stating plainly his intention to make the Ryder Cup team at Bethpage. With that as his North Star, everything else found its place.<\/p>\n
Finally, he changed his golf ball, putting a mysterious Titleist Pro V1 prototype into play ahead of the 2025 Wyndham, which immediately helped him flight the ball better and control his distance accordingly. It had the desired effect. In his first week with the new rock, Young won the event by six strokes, putting an emphatic end to the chatter about his conspicuous winless streak on Tour. <\/p>\n
To hear him describe it, it all was a massive relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nice to just not have it be the conversation anymore,\u201d Young says.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cam4.jpg\")
\n Young has vaulted to No. 3 in the World Ranking.<\/p>\n
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Michael Schwartz<\/p>\n
THAT FIRST TOUR TRIUMPH proved to be a springboard. Young finished fifth the following week, 11th a week later and T4 at the 2025 Tour Championship, earning a Ryder Cup captain\u2019s pick in the process.<\/p>\n
He acquitted himself so well in the first two days at Bethpage that U.S. captain Keegan Bradley sent him out first in Sunday singles in front of his New York faithful. He finished a back-and-forth showdown against Justin Rose with a must-make birdie putt on the 18th green for a 1-up victory and the biggest fist pump of his golfing life, knowing he\u2019d toppled the first domino in a rowdy comeback that the U.S. side nearly pulled off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was maybe more rewarding, in a sense, to make the putt on Sunday knowing that there was another guy behind me and one behind him and another one behind him,\u201d Young says, remembering the momentum. His 3-1-0 record was Team U.S.A.\u2019s best.<\/p>\n
In early 2026, Young picked up where he left off in 2025, finishing T7 at Riviera and T3 at Bay Hill before unleashing late heroics at TPC Sawgrass, where he chased down Sunday\u2019s leaders, birdied the island par-3 17th, stepped to the terrifying 18th tee with a pep talk to himself \u2014 I\u2019m going to hit the best shot of my life right here \u2014 and pummeled the longest drive in the hole\u2019s recorded history. When he won the Players Championship outright (Matt Fitzpatrick bogeyed No. 18, the sort of help he\u2019d never seemed to get from competitors in the past) the tee shot seemed emblematic of this new, assertive, self-believing Young \u2014 a golfer in full.<\/p>\n
There were still more positive signs at the Masters. Young\u2019s first point of pride was bouncing back from four bogeys in his first seven holes on Thursday to ultimately finish the event T3 behind winner Rory McIlroy and runner-up Scottie Scheffler. McIlroy-Scheffler-Young, at the biggest tournament on the calendar? Company noted.<\/p>\n
Two starts later, Young won again, six shots clear of second-place finisher Scheffler at the Cadillac Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just playing better,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I think you could argue all day about which piece has influenced that the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cam_table_1-scaled.jpg\")
\n \u201cI always thought, If I can just get to top 10 in the world, things will be easier. And they\u2019re not,\u201d Young says.<\/p>\n
Michael Schwartz<\/p>\n
THERE ARE PERKS that come with joining this club, with winning, with making the Ryder Cup, with being the world\u2019s third best player. Youngarrived on Tour as something of a loner. Now he talks about playing at home with Sunshine State neighbors Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Keegan Bradley and more.<\/p>\n
Still, winning isn\u2019t the game changer he imagined it to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always thought, If I can just get to top 10 in the world, things will be easier. And they\u2019re not,\u201d Young says. \u201cYou still start over every day, every week. I have a better handle on what I\u2019m doing and how to approach things than I did probably a year or two ago. But, like, is it easier? Less stressful? No. I mean, golf is still really hard. You still have to hit all the shots. So,yeah, my self-belief is higher. I have more tools to deal with things that come my way. But at the same time, it doesn\u2019t feel as different as I would have thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, full-circle moments keep materializing. His three- and four-year-old sons have begun taking an interest in golf at about the age their father was when he first toddled along the fairways at Sleepy. Recently, on a whim, Young\u2019s wife asked the boys if they wanted to go to the golf course.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it would be five minutes, and they\u2019d get bored and go do something else,\u201d Young says. \u201cBut they sat there and hit balls forever. We went and had lunch, then they both said, \u2018Can we go back out and hit more?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cam_fam.jpg\")
\n Young and family celebrate a Players Championship title.<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Youngs travel everywhere as a unit, an achievement in patience and logistics Cam credits to his wife, Kelsey. Their presence makes weeks on the road more meaningful \u2014 even if it has the effect of ratcheting down post-win celebrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife does a family photo album each year,\u201d Young says. \u201cAnd in this year\u2019s, we have a picture from the Players, late that night, while I was still [at TPC Sawgrass]. Right next to it is a picture of our kids on swings at the park. The two pictures are taken, like, 11 hours apart. We drove home in the rain [from Sawgrass to South Florida], fought the kids to bed, then got up and they were ready for the park. And we\u2019re like, \u2018Okay, let\u2019s go.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
With family his first priority, Young has had to double down on fundamentals, on discipline, on managing time and energy. \u201cIt\u2019s not glamorous and fun, but simple is the most effective [approach], I think,\u201d he says, adding with a chuckle: \u201cIn our household, we joke about \u2018being committed to your process,\u2019 whatever it is. Making eggs, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside the house, Young\u2019s process is focused on making birdies. Does he still love the game? He does. But to get the most out of himself, he\u2019s learned to treat it like a job.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be good at golf, I probably do a lot more things now that I don\u2019t love,\u201d he says. \u201cI love the process of trying to get better, but it doesn\u2019t mean I love endlessly hitting putts on a chalk line with a mirror.\u201d<\/p>\n
Does he ever chase daylight for old time\u2019s sake?<\/p>\n
\u201cThis past December, for probably the first time in three years, I played one round of casual golf with my friends,\u201d he says. His Wake Forest teammates were in town for a wedding.<\/p>\n
And that was that. But he\u2019s at peace with the trade-off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talk to my wife about this on a relatively regular basis, just making sure that we stop and appreciate where we are,\u201d Young says. \u201cIt\u2019s much easier to do when things are going well, but [it\u2019s important] even if I was playing poorly. It\u2019s been my dream to compete on the PGA Tour, really, for a very long time. And the opportunity to do that is something to be grateful for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young knows he\u2019s raised expectations. That winning is now the standard, that the question When will he win? has been ramped up to When will he win a major? That\u2019s okay. He\u2019s comfy there: under pressure late on a Sunday, the best players around him, the world watching. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a chance to remind himself of the thing he learned as a kid: It\u2019s good to be on a golf course, late in the afternoon, with something to chase.<\/p>\n