Cameron Young with wife Kelsey and children (Image: Getty Images)
Cameron Young captured the Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral on Sunday with a commanding six-stroke victory, earning $3.6 million and a thumbs-up from the president of the United States. Yet he almost decided his family shouldn’t make the trip.
Young dominated from start to finish to secure his second PGA Tour victory of the season, following his Players Championship triumph in March.
After completing his final round with a 4-under 68, he revealed that President Donald Trump’s presence had made him reconsider whether his wife Kelsey and their two children should make the two-hour journey from Jupiter, Florida, to witness his victory. It comes as Donald Trump makes uncharacteristically quiet entrance at PGA Tour event
“I had kind of told my wife, maybe it’s not the best idea to stick the kids in the car for two hours here and two hours back with all the security with the president here and everything,” Young explained following the round.
Kelsey ultimately decided to attend, arriving later in the afternoon, and Young expressed his appreciation. “Really grateful that they did come down. I was really happy to see them at the end of a day like that.”
Cameron Young celebrated his impressive Cadillac Championship win though Donald Trump did not join the festivities (Image: GETTY)
Sunday proved anything but ordinary on the PGA Tour. Trump touched down with multiple family members, including granddaughter Kai Trump, who intends to play golf at the University of Miami, shortly after midday local time, after a two-hour weather postponement had already thrown off the day’s program.
He remained until the final putt, rose to his feet as Young approached the 18th fairway amid applause, and shared a handshake and thumbs-up with the winner moments later.
During his post-round media session, Young detailed the experience of competing at a venue secured by the Secret Service. “Once you get out there, you’re out doing your job, but everything that leads up to that – the place is obviously crawling in Secret Service, and security and police, and it has a definitely different feel,” he said.
“I came out to go down to the side door where we’ve been coming in the clubhouse all week and kind of had two guys step together and say, ‘Hey, we’re not letting anybody through this way right now.’ So I was just walking in toward the locker room toward dining and had to turn around and walked all the way around the clubhouse to get back to that door. There are little things like that that’s obviously different with the President here, and it changed the rhythm of the day a little bit to start,” he added.
Following his victory, Young had a brief encounter with Trump and spoke positively about the exchange. “He was just very complimentary,” he continued. “You know, I’ve been fortunate to meet him before, and that’s especially with us golfers – it’s something he loves and I think appreciates how good everybody is on the PGA Tour. So really just hugely complimentary, and I, of course, thanked him for hosting us and that was about it.” Young expanded on the significance of competing before the president.
“It’s very unique,” he said. “He’s nothing if not a very, very interesting man. He’s very powerful, and it’s an honor to get to play in front of him.
“Hugely grateful to him and his family and his organization that has these beautiful properties and allows us to come and play great golf tournaments on them. This is a special place and great championship golf course. I’m thankful to have it back in the schedule.”
Young’s performance on the course was commanding. He concluded at 19 under par, six strokes ahead of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who carded a 68 and claimed second place for the third straight tournament.