05/03/26 04:29:00
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05/03 16:27 CDT With Trump watching in Doral, Cameron Young finishes off
wire-to-wire win at Cadillac Championship
With Trump watching in Doral, Cameron Young finishes off wire-to-wire win at
Cadillac Championship
By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Sports Writer
DORAL, Fla. (AP) --- The only person who gave Cameron Young any trouble on
Sunday was, well, Cameron Young.
He called a one-stroke penalty on himself while playing the par-4 second hole,
after he caused his ball to move in the fairway. And then he made par anyway.
It was that sort of week: Young was unflappable and unbeatable. He went
wire-to-wire alone on the lead at the Cadillac Championship, a final round of
4-under 68 getting him to 19 under for the week and six shots clear of world
No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (68).
"When the golf course is difficult, when the conditions are difficult, that
tends to make it easier for me mentally," Young said.
With President Donald Trump in place to watch most of the round at Trump
National Doral, Young picked up $3.6 million for the second-biggest payday of
his career. He made $4.5 million earlier this year for winning The Players
Championship.
Trump arrived with several members of his family --- including granddaughter
Kai Trump, who plans to play at the University of Miami when she enrolls later
this year --- shortly after noon and remained until the tournament was over. He
stood for the ovation as Young walked up the 18th hole, as a number of fans in
attendance were allowed to move into the fairway for a look at the final putts
of the week.
And when it was over, Young got a thumbs-up from Trump, followed later by a
quick handshake.
A bit more than an inch of rain fell on the course in the early morning hours
Sunday, delaying a planned 7:30 a.m. start (which had already been rescheduled
Saturday in anticipation of bad weather) to the final round by two hours. And
the Blue Monster was no longer a monster, not with everything softened by the
rain.
The average scores in the first three rounds were between 71 and 71.6. The
average score Sunday, with preferred lies, was 69. There were nine birdies ---
total --- on the par 18th in the first three rounds and 12 at the finishing
hole on Sunday alone.
Scheffler finished second for the third consecutive start, after finishing a
shot behind Rory McIlroy at the Masters and losing a playoff to Matt
Fitzpatrick at Hilton Head. Those were near-misses; this one wasn't.
That's how good Young was. Even the best player in the world never had a real
chance on Sunday.
"Some good takeaways from this week," Scheffler said. "Cam played fantastic
golf all week. I played with him three out of the four days and he was hitting
a lot of quality shots and making putts from anywhere. He was going to be to be
a tough man to beat this week."
Young called the violation on himself with his ball in the middle of the
fairway on the second hole --- it moved at address, something he said has
happened to him before --- and said he didn't hesitate to do the right thing.
"Your heart sinks when you see it move," Young said. "But it moved. That's part
of what's golf about. There's no one who's going to give me a penalty there but
myself."
Ben Griffin (68) was third at 12 under, while Si Woo Kim (70), Sepp Straka (66)
and Adam Scott (64) tied for fourth at 11 under.
Scott likely clinched a spot in the U.S. Open --- which would be his 100th
consecutive major start, assuming he starts in the PGA Championship later this
month --- after shooting 66-64 on the weekend. Scott finished at 11 under,
meaning he should remain comfortably inside the top 60 in the world ranking and
qualify for the U.S. Open.
"To win a major I'm going to need to put four days together, not just a weekend
coming from behind," said Scott, who was the winner of the World Golf
Championships Cadillac Championship --- until this week, the most recent PGA
Tour event at Doral --- in 2016. "I feel like my game is there. I'm doing all
the things that I think I need to do to be in that kind of contention."
Young can say the same. The world's No. 4 player was 67th in those rankings at
this time last year, and is already over the $11 million mark in earnings in
2026.
"I think the self-belief just continues to build," Young said.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
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