Cameron Young was the only player on the Valspar Championship Field to shoot in the 60s all four days. Still, he fell two strokes short of Peter Malnati.
His solo second place is the seventh of his short PGA Tour career. He currently has the most undefeated runner-up finishes on tour since 1983.
The two players who held this record before Young were Colin Montgomery and Blaney Baird, each with six.
Young stood on the 18th tee alongside Malnati in need of a birdie. Instead, his errant drive ultimately put him in a difficult position, resulting in a bogey and giving way to Malnati.
“Yeah, it was bad timing to pull. I’m trying to hit a similar shot, like the one I hit on No. 16. It’s not a very dramatic cut, but I started with a bit of a headwind. , blowing pretty good from the right. So, yeah, it was a bad time for a bad time,” Young said after the round.
For the most part, his driver was the best club of the year.
Young is currently one of the best drivers on the PGA Tour. He ranks 18th in strokes gained off the tee. However, the rest of his games could be hit or miss. The 26-year-old ranks 113th in strokes gained putts and missed out on the title Sunday.
Still, he has won eight of eight races this season, including a third-place finish at the DP World Tour’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Young also ran a T4 at the Cognizant Classic.
The former Wake Forest Demon Deacon earned more than $14 million in his short career.
I saw him on Sunday climb up the leaderboard After starting with a three-stroke lead over 54-hole leader Keith Mitchell.
However, bogeys on No. 2 and 18 prevented him from forcing a play-off with Malnati.
“I think I held myself very well mentally today,” he said. “I’ve hit a few shots recently that I’m really proud of…but I think I handled my thoughts pretty well. Regardless of the outcome, it’s a big win for me.”
When will the young star overcome this hurdle? The record that Young currently holds is not a record that anyone playing on the PGA Tour would want. Seven runner-up finishes out of 60 events means he finished in the top two 11.7% of the time.
Sure, money is nice, but the goal is definitely to have a PGA Tour win on your resume.
Savannah Lee Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.If you want to know more about golf, please follow us. @_PlayingThrough On all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirls and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
