Cameron Young’s meeting with President Trump permeates Cadillac’s ‘unique’ victory

It wasn’t a normal Championship Sunday for Cameron Young.

He entered the last round of Cadillac Championship IN Trump National Doral lead with six. He called himself a penalty for inadvertent ball movement before hitting his approach shot on the second hole. “It’s just one of those things, your heart sinks when you see it move, but it moved and that’s part of what golf is about,” Young said of calling the penalty for himself. He responded by draining a 13-footer for the first, and no player, not even world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who finished second, got closer than six as Young cruised to his third career victory and second of the season.

But Young’s Doral Sunday was different not only for how it unfolded and how he steamrolled a Signature Event field, but also because President Donald Trump showed up for the final round of the PGA Tour’s return to his championship course in Florida. That meant increased security and, for Young, a meeting with the Secret Service to start the day, and a handshake, a thumbs-up and a chat with President Trump at the end.

“Not at all. No,” Young said after his win when asked if it felt like a typical Sunday. “I mean, once you get out there you’re doing your job. But everything leading up to that, you know, the place is definitely crawling with Secret Service and security and police, and there’s definitely a different feel.”

Young said he tried to enter the club’s side door, which he had been using all week, and was immediately stopped by two members of the United States Secret Service, who told him the entrance was not being used today with Trump in attendance.

“So there are little things like that that are definitely different with the President here and it changed the pace of the day a little bit to begin with,” Young said.

Championship Sundays have a different cadence and feel. The weather threw things off from the start. The PGA Tour moved tee times and forced players to tee off in threes from split tees to avoid expected inclement weather. The final round was still over an hour late. The added security made the last day feel even stranger.

But once it started, Young proceeded to put Scheffler and the rest of the field in a sleeper jam.

“Every time I’ve played him, I’ve always been impressed with his game,” Scheffler said of Young after the round. “He hit a lot of quality shots this week. A lot of quality irons, quality shots, especially on the holes where it really counts. There are some tee shots here that are really tough, and he stepped up and hit the shots. On the greens, he was unbelievable this week. The first 27 holes, I didn’t think it was terrible. You’re hitting really good shots and hitting a lot of putts, that’s a recipe to get away with a golf tournament.”

After Young saved par on the second hole, he bogeyed Nos. 3, 5 and 8 to finish at 3-under 33 and put the tournament to bed. Even bogeys on 11 and 13 didn’t give Scheffler and other chasers hope. When Young made back-to-back birdies on the 15th and 16th, all that remained were Doral’s final two holes and a brief meeting with the President.

“It’s very unique,” Young said of meeting President Trump after his victory. “He is nothing if not a very, very interesting man. He is very powerful and it is an honor to play in front of him.

“He was just very complimentary, like he, you know, I’ve been lucky enough to meet him before, and that’s especially with us golfers, it’s something that he loves and I think he appreciates how good everybody is on the PGA TOUR. So, really just very complimentary, and I certainly thanked him for hosting us, and that was about it.”

This week marked the first time in a decade that the PGA Tour has hosted a tournament at Trump National Doral. It’s a course Young is happy to have back on the schedule, and he’ll be looking forward to returning next season as the defending champion.

“It’s definitely a big, tough championship golf course,” Young said. “I think that’s what a lot of us like here. For me personally, I prefer a hard golf course to an easier one, I guess. That’s just the type of golf that I like. … I like having one more spot on the schedule that’s more that style of golf.”

A year ago, Cameron Young was still looking for his first PGA Tour win. He had knocked on the door several times but had been unable to knock it down. it changed candleschanged balls and changed his ball flight. then he won the Wyndham Championship in August, was the best player on the USA Ryder Cup team and beat Matt Fitzpatrick to win the Players Championship.

This week, he destroyed the blue monster to secure his third PGA Tour victory and will now be one of the favorites to win the PGA Championship at Aronimink in two weeks.

“Of course it did,” Young said of how his win at Wyndham opened things up for him. “Once you’ve done it once, I think it’s easier to do it again. But at the same time, golf hasn’t changed tremendously. I think I continue to slowly improve in, I think, all different areas of the game. I think I’m a little better everywhere than I was a year ago. That’s the goal, just keep looking better, when they get a little better, getting a little better. like this compared to finishing second, third, five, where you had a chance to win and you didn’t.”

Cameron Young hasn’t changed much in the past year. But his position in the professional golf hierarchy has, and the scene after his Doral dominance was proof of the difference 12 months can make.