Cameron Young fires 65 at Travelers after dad replaces sick caddie
Cameron Young was on his way to TPC River Highlands on Thursday morning when he received a call from his caddie.
Kyle, Sterbinsky, Young's college teammate at Wake Forest who began caddying for Young at this year's PGA Championship, was still too sick to carry the bag for the first round of the Travelers Championship.
'I don't want what he has, and I don't want any of my kids to have what he has,' Young said. 'Figured just give him an extra day to recover. I'm sure he could have come out here if his life depended on it.'
But there was no need to risk anything. In stepped Young's father, David Young.
Young, who retired a couple years ago as Sleepy Hollow Club's longtime head golf professional, had last caddied for his son a few years ago for nine holes of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
'But he's out there all the time, so it's pretty easy,' said Cameron Young, who opened the Travelers with a 5-under 65. '… He walks so many holes with me and knows the game so well that he can be an asset for me out there.'
Young's round, though, got off to a rocky start. With his routine slightly affected by the caddie change, Young double-bogeyed the par-4 first hole, where he missed his tee shot well left, dumped his approach into a greenside bunker, splashed out to 28 feet and then later missed a 3-footer for bogey. But he settled in nicely after that with five birdies in his next eight holes.
Young entered this week coming off back-to-back T-4 finishes, at the RBC Canadian Open and U.S. Open. He also was T-7 last month at the Truist Championship before gutting out a T-47 while feeling ill himself at the PGA Championship. His recent stretch also includes a T-25 at the Memorial after opening in 77.
'I've been playing really well,' Young said. 'Philadelphia is the first result that you see it, finishing top 10 there, and then PGA week I actually played really well. I was deathly ill on the weekend. I could hardly stay awake to play. I think had I been feeling okay I would have been kind of up there that week. Just physically I had terrible aches and stuff, so I was really struggling out there. Yeah, I really have put together a bunch of nice weeks in a row. … There's been a lot of solid golf, and nice to see it kind of result in some good finishes.'
As for reviewing dad's performance, Young said: 'He hung in there. I think that hill on 17 was not his favorite. But he made it, and hopefully don't need him again tomorrow.'
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