“I’ve been waiting for it for a while,” Cameron Young said, fighting back tears on Sunday — and with good reason. After 94 starts on the PGA Tour, the 28-year-old finally captured his long-awaited first PGA Tour victory at the 2025 Wyndham Championship. Young’s win was both a personal milestone and a historic one, as he became the 1,000th different winner in PGA Tour history. As the golf world celebrated, his father added a light-hearted story that captured just how meaningful the journey had been.
To capture his first win, and to do that with his father present, meant a lot to Young. “Yeah, it’s great,” Young said. “He doesn’t miss much. He’s essential to me doing what I do. He does a lot of background stuff for me. He sets up a lot of stuff for me, he kind of takes care of little things, and on top of that coaches me. He’s a great resource to have on the road, both as a friend and a coach, and a father. He plays a lot of roles for me. He just walked into the room. nice to have him here. Glad he watched some better golf than I’ve played in a while,” Cameron Young reflected on the special moment in an interview post his win.
But the moment was just as special for David Young, who has seen every stage of his son’s journey firsthand. He served as the head golf professional at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Scarborough, New York, for roughly two decades. He was Cameron’s first coach and mentor.
Reflecting on the early days, he shared a favorite memory in a candid chat— “There was a Met Open where he caddied for me at the Country Club of Fairfield. And he had a tournament in the afternoon. It’s a funny story. He caddied for me at the Met Open. We rushed across the county to get him to his event. And then he ended up playing his event.” David Young then recalled the funny part as he continued.
“And we see him coming over the hill on the last hole actually carrying one of his fellow competitors’ bags as well, because he just wasn’t feeling well. So he came to caddy for me in the morning and played his event after he actually carried somebody else’s bag, and he’s coming down the stretch of that event. He has, you know, he’s got a good set of legs on him, so he can do that kind of stuff,” he said, smiling about the memory he recalled after watching his son finally lift a PGA Tour trophy. Young joined the PGA Tour in 2022 and came close several times with 7 runner-up finishes since then.
How it started vs. how it’s going
@PGA pic.twitter.com/218wwjahNe
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 3, 2025
But his father’s recollection was one of many stories from Cameron Young’s childhood that painted the picture of a kid completely immersed in the game, not just in skill, but in spirit. That energy and love for golf were evident from an incredibly early age. “Oh boy, when he was about three, he started coming to the range with us in the evening and hitting balls,” his father added. “He would just stand there and hit balls until his hands were too sore to do it anymore. He always had the tenacity and the persistence to get good at the game, whatever he wanted to. That’s probably my earliest memory of him just working so hard at it at such an early age,” David Young expressed as he recounted early memories of his son.
Still, it wasn’t until the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills that David was finally able to watch Cameron compete live on-site. “I’m used to watching him on TV. All I see there is where the ball ends up. Now, I’ll be able to watch in person and see everything that’s going on. I get to see his swing and his game, not just the result,” Young said. “I’m just really excited.”
The decades of effort and family support finally culminated in Sunday’s emotional breakthrough. That work ethic and love for the game were evident from the start for Young. In a sport often defined by individual accomplishment, Sunday’s win was as much a shared moment as it was a personal one, and the end of a long wait for Cameron Young.
Cameron Young’s journey to victory
Cameron Young’s road to his first PGA Tour win wasn’t marked by failure. It was marked by consistent excellence that somehow never quite turned into a trophy. By the end of his rookie season in 2022, Young had already racked up seven top-10s, including five runner-up finishes — a blistering start that proved he wasn’t just riding momentum. Over 93 career starts leading into the Wyndham Championship, he made the cut 72 times — a 77.4% rate — and consistently contended. His 12 top-five finishes and 22 top-tens, including standout performances in majors, cemented his place among the game’s most reliable threats. But despite the consistency, the win always seemed just out of reach.
Perhaps the most painful stat, and the one that stuck with him the longest, was his record-setting seven runner-up finishes without a win, the most by any player in the last 40 years. His second-place at the 2024 Valspar Championship only added to that narrative, placing him just behind Tommy Fleetwood for most top-five finishes without a victory since 2022. Still, his career earnings told a different story — more than $19.1 million in just over three seasons, and averaging more than $206,000 per start. That kind of performance, both statistically and financially, only underscored how overdue this win at Sedgefield truly was, and with that, Young added another $1.48 million to his bank account.
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