DORAL — Cameron Young was so dominant at the Cadillac Championship that he called a one-shot penalty on himself on the second hole … and still won by six shots.
The Palm Beach Gardens resident officially is on a heater after finishing the event at Trump National Doral with a 68, giving him a 19-under 269 for the tournament.
Scottie Scheffler (68) was a distant second at 13-under. Scheffler now has 13 career runner-up finishes and three in a row.
Young opened with a 64 and never was threatened after leading by five shots after the second round. He was the solo leader wire-to-wire, the second time this season on the PGA Tour, joining Justin Rose who did it at the Farmers Insurance Open.
“I feel like I had different parts of the game working on different days,” Young said. “Today I drove it a lot better. First couple days I putted great and I drove it a little bit more all over the place. Thankfully I feel like I’ve got a lot of tools right now and throughout the week I was able to use different parts of the game to keep myself moving in the right direction.”
The native New Yorker won with Donald Trump watching from his suite on the 18th green for most of the afternoon. Trump, who stayed at the resort the previous night, came out to the course about 30 minutes after Young teed off.
Trump pointed to Young and gave him a thumbs up as Young walked off the 18th green to greet his family. Later, as Trump was being driven off the course in a black SUV, he had the driver stop the vehicle when he saw Young headed to the scoring tent. The president got out and shook the champion’s hand.
“He was very complimentary,” Young said about their short conversation. “He’s nothing if not a very interesting man. He’s very powerful. It’s an honor to get to play in front if him.”
Young, an early leader for Player of the Year along with Matt Fitzpatrick, has two wins (The Players, Cadillac) and two thirds (Arnold Palmer, Masters). He cruised to the win at Doral after starting the day with a six-shot lead.
Which lessened the sting on the second hole when he summoned a rules official after believing his ball took a slight turn forward as he took back his club for his second shot on the 458-yard, par-4 second hole.
This came after he picked up his ball to give himself a favorable lie, which was allowed because of the 1.1 inches of rain that fell on the course before play started.
Young told the official he was over the ball when it rolled. He was assessed a one-shot penalty.
No problem. Young stuck his third shot inside 14-feet and drained the putt for a par.
“Your heart sinks when you see it move,” Young said. “But it moved. That’s part of what golf is about. There was no one that was going to give me a penalty there but myself. I wasn’t going to look away and say it didn’t move when it rolled over.”
After birdies at No. 3 and 5, all that was left was for Young was to accept the $3.6 million-dollar winners check, which puts him atop the 2026 money list.
Young, No. 4 in the world, led Scheffler, the world No.1, by seven shots after six holes with seven golfers tied for third, one shot behind Scheffler.
Cameron Young playing his best on the most challenging courses
Most impressive about Young’s season is his biggest conquests have come on the most difficult courses.
Augusta National and TPC Sawgrass, homes of the Masters and Players, are the two toughest courses on the PGA Tour schedule so far this season. Bay Hill, where Arnie’s tournament is held, is No. 5.
The PGA Tour has not had an event at Doral in a decade but the last three years a tournament was held on the Blue Monster (2014-2016), the course was the third, seventh and 11th toughest on the Tour.
“I tend to play well at difficult golf courses, difficult setups, difficult conditions,” the 28-year-old Young said. “I think it mentally makes it easier for me to focus shot to shot. When you feel like you have to birdie every hole, and you feel like you’re losing when you make a par. I think that’s proven to be more difficult for me.
“Difficult golf courses I think it just forces you to focus on what you’re doing and kind of the task at hand.”
The conditions, though, were very benign in the final round compared to the whipping winds that made the third round so difficult.
The air was thick after the morning rain, but the winds died significantly. The course played about 3 shots under par on the final round, about 2.5 shots easier than the previous day.
“I didn’t know exactly how the day was going to go, whether we would be starting or stopping,” Young said. “Just one of those times played to my hands.”
Scheffler played with Young three of the four days.
“Cam played fantastic golf all week,” Scheffler said. “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.”
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Cameron Young wins Cadillac Championship after self-imposed penalty
Reporting by Tom D’Angelo, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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