Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap: Young and Free

In Cameron Young's fifth PGA Tour start, he finished second. And then it happened again in his 12th. And 19th. And 24th. And 25th.

Young burst upon the scene in 2021-22, finishing not only with five those runners-up but also tying for third twice.

He wasn't losing tournaments, he just wasn't winning them.

In all, Young amassed seven runners-up, the most on Tour for a non-winner since 1983.

One thing he had never had, though, was a 54-hole lead.

Young finally got one of those at the Wyndham Championship, and it was a big one -- five shots.

That's all he needed to finally secure his first PGA Tour title, winning the regular-season-ending Wyndham by six strokes over Mac Meissner. He finished at 22-under but earlier hit 24-under and led by nine.

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It was such an unfamiliar situation for Young that he didn't know what to do after he won -- where to go, where to stand.

"Yeah. Well, all of a sudden a lot -- every time I've come off the green my entire career, I have shaken the hands of whoever I've played with, thanked the standard bearer and our walking scorer, and then walked through the tunnel to scoring [tent]," Young told reporters at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C..

"Today there were about 150 people between me and that tunnel. So at that point I got confused and I didn't know if I did that first or if I, you know, spoke to somebody first."

In fact, yes, Young had to speak to CBS' Amanda Ballionis first before signing his scorecard in the scoring tent.

The victory was enormous for Young, and it came at the end of what to that point was a disappointing season. Now, he moved up to 16th in the FedExCup Standings, ensuring he will be in the TOUR Championship, and suddenly should be on Keegan Bradley's radar for a possible Ryder Cup captain's pick. Young jumped to No. 15 in the U.S. standings and No. 21 in the OWGR.

As a New York native who hits the ball a ton and is now sixth on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting, there's a lot to like about Young for Bethpage Black next month.

It wasn't that way just a few months ago.

Yount tied for eighth at the season-opening Sentry, then didn't have another top-10 for four months until the Truist in May. That's where his season began to turn. He added twin T4 finishes at the Canadian and U.S. Opens.

"Yeah, going into the Truist this year, the first week of May, I think I was 83rd so that was not a great spot to be," Young said. "There's thoughts in the back of your mind like what if I finish 104th? So I kind of told myself that I can't let that happen. I've played some different golf since then, so yeah, to be back kind of where I feel like I should be, I've got a great opportunity to make it to East Lake and I think a great opportunity to make the Ryder Cup team. Those are two things I want to do."

Bradley was long gone by Sunday, having missed the cut. But one of his vice captains, Webb Simpson, was present for the final round. He knows Young since they both went to nearby Wake Forest -- albeit about a decade apart.

"Man, I mean, Cam's a New Yorker," Simpson told reporters, "I know he loves that golf course. Anytime you're about to win by 10, you've got to talk about him. And he certainly has the right game for that golf course. He's just adding his name to the list of many guys that are hard for us to say no to."

There are a lot of guys fighting for maybe two or three spots -- Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Ben Griffin, Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Wyndham Clark and maybe one or two others.

So Young, and all the others, will have to keep their foot on the gas, as the three-event playoffs begin this week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.

Finally, in a bit of trivia, Young became the 1,000th different winner in PGA Tour history. They count No. 1 as Willie Park Sr., who you'll recall won the very first Open Championship back in 1860.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Mac Meissner
Meisner won't make the playoffs, but thanks to his best finish ever on the PGA Tour, he has a very good chance to keep his card for next season. He was struggling this season and outside the top-150 in points. But as Wyndham runner-up, he soared to 86th in points. That was his first top-10 of the season, and that followed a T14 at the 3M Open. Meissner is not a bad player; he was ranked 60th in Strokes Gained: Approach and 29th in SG: Around-the-Green heading into the Wyndham. He's on the brink of the OWGR top-100, at No. 101.

Mark Hubbard
Hubbard made a frantic effort to crack the top 70 and, for a while, he did. He shot a final-round 63 to tie for third. At one point, he moved to 67th place in points, but he was overtaken by golfers still on the course. He ended up 77th in points, and therefore his card for 2026 is 99 percent secure.

Alex Noren
Noren missed most of the season with injuries. So a tie for third in just his ninth start, which followed a T7 in his eighth at the 3M, has to be very encouraging. He's up to 105th in points, but even if he doesn't crack the top 100 at the end of the fall, a major medical extension might be in the offing.

Jackson Koivun
The world's No. 1 amateur sure seems ready to turn pro. The 20-year-old tied for fifth. That followed a T6 at the ISCO Championship and T11 at the John Deere for Koivun, who will turn pro after one more year at Auburn. But he should continue to get sponsor's invites between now and then, and clearly has been a viable fantasy option.

Aaron Rai
The defending champion did well in tying for fifth. Rai is now 55th in points, so he'll need another good week at the FedEx St. Jude to crack the top 50 to qualify for the following week's BMW Championship.

Matt Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick's late-season surge continued with a tie for eighth. He's now 41st in points, safely through two playoff events and with a good shot at the top 30 for the TOUR Championship. More importantly, he's now seemingly locked into a berth on the European Ryder Cup team.

Ben Griffin
Griffin enhanced his Ryder Cup chances with a tie for 11th. He played the first two rounds alongside captain Bradley and shot twin 67s. Then he matched that total on the weekend, with a 69-65.

Harry Hall
Hall turned in another top-25. He tied for 15th for his 12th top-25 on the season and eighth in his past nine starts.

Hideki Matsuyama
A tie for 19th might not sound like much for the No. 12 player in the world. But it hasn't been a great season for Matsuyama after winning the season-opening Sentry. This result gave him three straight top-20s heading into the playoffs, which he'll start in 21st place.

Nico Echavarria
In the final group alongside Young, the back nine turned into a disaster for Echavarria. He had two doubles and two bogeys for a 41 that resulted in a 75 to fall into shared 19th place. For a while, it appeared as if he could tumble out of the playoffs after consecutive doubles on Nos. 11 and 12. But Echavarria steadied enough to end in 62nd in points.

Sungjae Im
After opening 64-64, Im tumbled on the weekend and wound up tied for 31st. That still moved him from 30th to 29th in points, secure for the first two playoff tournaments. But for a player of Im's caliber, nothing short of East Lake will suffice. He wIll need to deliver in at least one of the first two playoff events.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth tied for 31st. Another meh week for him. He's 48th in points, up from 50th at the beginning of the week. So he's not safely through to the BMW just yet and, like Im, anything short of the TOUR Championship will be viewed as a poor season.

Rickie Fowler
Fowler heads to the playoffs in 64th place, and he'll need a huge week to move into the top-50. He never got anything going at the Wyndham after a decent stretch run, and he tied for 44th.

FEDEXCUP PLAYOFFS

Illustrating how hard it is to move into the top 70 in the standings to qualify for the playoffs at the last possible moment, only one guy did so. Chris Kirk tied for fifth to jump from 73rd to 61st in points, bumping out Byeong Hun An, who missed the cut and fell from 69th to 74th.

In a wild scenario, Davis Thompson just missed and Matti Schmid just made it. Thompson three-putted from 46 feet on the 18th hole to fall from a tie for eighth at the Wyndham to a tie for 11th. Three holes earlier, Thompson made a 47-footer for birdie. Schmid, meanwhile, was 5-over at one point on this round but never gave up. In incredible fashion, he birdied his final three holes, including from 25 feet on No. 18, to finish T31 in the tournament and 70th in points. Schmid and Thompson ended up separated by under five points.

Other  big names who missed out on the playoffs included Gary Woodland (72nd place), Nicolai Hojgaard (73rd), Keith Mitchell (75th), Alex Smalley (79th), Rasmus Hojgaard (85th), Adam Scott (90th), Max Homa (111th), Nick Dunlap (135th), Adam Hadwin (136th) and Sahith Theegala (147th), who was injured much of the season.

Missing the playoffs is huge for these players, but now most will turn their attention to finishing in the top 100 by the end of the fall season to keep their cards for 2026, if not already exempt.

MISSED CUTS

Max Homa, Keegan Bradley, Nick Dunlap, Lucas Glover, Max Greyserman, Jake Knapp, Sam Stevens, Akshay Bhatia (WD). Homa won't have to worry about his card for a few years, as he is exempt all the way through 2028. That's how good he was and how far he's fallen so quickly. … Bradley made a curious decision to play, since he will be in all three playoff events, plus has his Ryder Cup captain's responsibilities ramping up. … Dunlap had a disastrous season but luckily is exempt for two more seasons. … Glover was the 2023 Wyndham champion and will still qualify for at least the first two playoff events. … Greyserman, Knapp and Stevens all qualified for the playoffs, as did Bhatia.

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