Young Logs top 10 at 88th Masters
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (April 14, 2024) -- Weekend rounds of 72-73 landed Cameron Young his second consecutive top 10 finish in the Masters and his fourth career top 10 in a major championship. He finished even-par overall, tying for ninth place alongside college teammate Will Zalatoris and Tyrrell Hatton.
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Young entered the weekend tied for eighth. After 11 birdies through the opening two rounds, he added five more in Saturday's third round and led the field with 16 birdies through 54 holes. However, Young also had too many miscues on the week, making a double bogey in each of the last three rounds to go with additional bogeys. He added three birdies in the final round to close with 19 for the week, finishing tied for third most at Augusta National.
Young's finish kept him as the No. 14 player in the Official World Golf Ranking. In the PGA TOUR's FedExCup race, Young moved from 23rd to 15th. The four-time MGA winner has made the cut in all nine of his events in the 2024 season, earning four top-10 finishes including a runner-up at the Valspar Championship in March.
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (April 12, 2024) -- Following rounds of 70-73, four-time MGA champion Cameron Young enters the weekend at the 88th Masters Tournament tied for eighth place. At 1-under, Young sits just five shots off the 36-hole lead set by Max Homa, Bryson DeChambeau, and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
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Young has made plenty of birdies over the first two rounds, making six in round one, plus five more in round two's challenging, windy conditions.
Young made early birdies on Nos. 2, 3, and 6 in his second round to reach 5-under for the tournament. He alternated bogeys and birdie on Nos. 7-8-9 to make the turn in 1-under on the round before facing the famed Amen Corner.
"It's a tricky stretch," said Young of Amen Corner, where he hit balls in penalty areas on both Nos. 11 and 13, making a double bogey and bogey to give three shots back. "The wind is all over the place and nowhere at all, and it's just trying to take the best guess as you can, and when you guess wrong, the ball goes in the water pretty much every time. I think that sums it up."
Young bounced back with a birdie three on No 14 before closing his second round with a bogey on the par-4 18th.
With the winds forecasted to die down over the weekend, Young has the same game plan as his opening two rounds and looks to remain in the mix for his first major victory.
"I don't think it'll play this difficult unless the greens get unbelievably firm," said Young. "I think I'll have plenty of opportunities, and we'll see what happens."
Young fired a final round 68 last year to finish tied for seventh. His third round will begin at 2:05 p.m., alongside England's Tommy Fleetwood.
Meanwhile, Stewart Hagestad carded an opening round of 2-over 74 highlighted by birdies on Nos. 6, 12, and 18. While the cut fell at 6-over, Hagestad carded a 6-over 78 in the second round to narrowly miss the weekend at Augusta National. U.S. Amateur Championship runner-up Neal Shipley was the lone amateur to make the cut, doing so behind rounds of 71-76 (3-over).
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (April 9, 2024) – Nine years ago in the MGA’s 60th Ike Championship, Cameron Young and Stewart Hagestad finished No. 1-2 at Friar’s Head. Young went on to win the 2015 MGA Player of the Year title, with Hagestad earning the next in 2016 thanks to victories in the Met Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur. This week, both players will compete in The Masters for the third time.
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Though Young, currently the No. 14 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, missed the cut in his first Masters appearance, he clearly took plenty of notes and learned quickly on the hallowed grounds. Young battled some challenging weather conditions for the third round, but his opening round 67 and final round 68 helped him to a tie for seventh – his third career top 10 in a major championship.
“I think the more I’m out here, the more I see these golf courses, I think they just generally suit my game quite well,” said Young after last year’s final round.
Young has made the cut in all eight of his PGA TOUR starts in 2024, with a season-best runner-up finish coming just a couple weeks ago in the Valspar Championship.
Hagestad earned his invitation thanks to his third U.S. Mid-Amateur victory, which came last September at Sleepy Hollow Country Club. The win came in the midst of an amazing stretch for Hagestad. Just days prior he was part of his fourth winning U.S. Walker Cup team, while shortly after he won the Crump Cup at Pine Valley.
In his 2017 Augusta National debut, Hagestad finished tied for 36th, becoming the first reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion to earn Low Amateur honors since Jay Siegel in 1988. Hagestad’s game has already seemed to be in good form this spring, having won the Azalea Amateur at Country Club of Charleston in late March.
“The goal was obviously to play well and to try to win coming in, but if you don’t succeed at that goal, to feel pressure and to give yourself a chance coming down the stretch on Sunday,” said Hagestad to The Back of the Range podcast about his play in the Azalea. “To walk away with a win was a cherry on top.”
Hagestad, who currently ranks No. 11 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, will play the opening two rounds alongside past champion Fred Couples and Canadian Adam Hadwin (11:54 a.m./8:48 a.m.). Young is paired with past champion Adam Scott and Sam Burns (1:12 p.m./10:06 a.m.) for Thursday and Friday.