Young went on to win that week at Sedgefield Country Club – a long-awaited maiden PGA Tour title that finally got him off the list of players who had made the most money without a trophy to show for it. He’s since added The Players and the Cadillac Championship – a Signature Event – to his resume, and will tee up at the 108th PGA Championship as the third favorite behind Rory McIlroy and defending champion Scottie Scheffler.
It’s been some run for the New Yorker, who turned 29 last week – and one that has understandably put focus on his switch to a new Titleist Pro V1x that’s been in his bag since August.
But it’s come to light in recent weeks that this tour-only Pro V1x – a prototype CPO, which stands for ‘Custom Performance Option’ – will be considered conforming under the new rules which are now due to come into play in 2030 after a recent delay.
The twist, if you haven’t worked it out already, is that Young knew nothing about it.
“I put it in play for the same reason that everybody else plays the ball that they play,” he shrugged during his pre-tournament press conference at Aronimink. “I hit it during a ball test at one of the Titleist facilities probably close to two years ago and didn’t know anything about it. I said, ‘Hey, what’s that one?’ Because I liked the flight. Then, as things progressed, I was able to test it last year at the Wyndham, able to put that in play, and it’s been there since.”
The R&A and USGA, the governing bodies behind the changes, said players at the very top of the game were expected to lose “up to 15 yards” when the rollback came into force. But despite the fact his ball will conform to the new rules, Young hasn’t given up anything on the fairways. Up to the Wyndham Championship, when Young was using a Titleist Pro V1 Left Dot, he was 29th in the PGA Tour driving stats, averaging 311.1 yards. In 2026, with the prototype Pro V1x in play, he’s 27th, with an average of 312 yards.
But for Young and his peers, distance isn’t the focus anyway.
“I don’t think any of us are out really here playing the ball that goes the farthest,” Young explained. “I think you’d struggle to find a single person that’s doing that. We’re all sacrificing a certain amount of things that we feel are worth it. For me, the biggest thing is being able to control spin, and this is the ball that does the best for me.
“The driver is the easiest thing to deal with. For me to get it where it needed to be, I had to just add a little bit of spin, and it comes out at a perfectly playable range. For me, the biggest thing is the irons. This ball is easier to control with the irons. It doesn’t spin as much, and it just allows me to be better with my distance control just because it’s more consistent.”
As for the ball being conforming, Young said he “wasn’t aware of that until very recently”.
“At no point was that a consideration,” he added. “It was just really me trying to optimize my golf, and it’s the ball that seems to work the best for me.
“I was surprised, in a sense, but at the same time it didn’t change that I had played well with it, and I was comfortable. I feel like I’m playing a golf ball that’s best for how I’m playing the game at the moment. If that works out to mean that this goes into effect and I’m still playing the ball however many years from now, that makes it an easy change.
“The manufacturers are so good. They’re going to find their way to make a good golf ball no matter what the restrictions are. So it doesn’t really concern me that much, frankly.”
Young gets his latest bid to add a major to his swiftly blossoming CV underway at 1.54pm alongside former champions Keegan Bradley and Justin Thomas at the PGA Championship.