Is Cameron Young An Elite Player? | The First Cut Podcast

Is Cam Young elite? The First Cut crew discusses.

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ABOUT THE SHOW: The First Cut brings you everything you need to know in the world of professional golf. Nearly every day Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, Mark Immelman, Greg DuCharme, Sia Nejad and Patrick McDonald bring you the best analysis in the game. From DFS to betting previews, interviews and recaps… everything golf is on the table when you listen to The First Cut.

Also playing in the Masters this year will be cam young Greg and I would like to do a little bit of a temp check on cam young who went 69 69 68 68 his second nine had birdies on 11 12 and 14 but he played his final four

Holes at one over and this will now be his seventh runner-up finish to go along with zero career PGA Tour victories level of concern being where ah you know concern is a funny thing I mean last night we talked about this and I said I didn’t think he was ready in

Large part because of his short game I still think there’s a weakness there he made some nice really nice up and downs today um but a lot of it’s with the putter like he made a he made some nice par saving putts from 11 15 ft in that range uh that were big

Now that’s a really good sign in a lot of ways because he knows how to compete he knows how to put himself in the mix uh so I do think I I still think the short game needs to get a whole lot better just watching him like the shot

At two I’m not saying he’s going to get this up and down but he’s got like 35 yards and fat it short of the green and those are the kind of things that guys that win major championships and don’t they don’t do that that he has the upside to overcome

That and nearly win you stand on the 18th t with a with a chance to win birdie at 18 gets him in the playoff and and might win outright because of the way timeing stands up so look I I thought ultimately cam cam young played some really good golf uh the birdie at

12 was huge he took care of the par fives on the back nine which was a big deal and he he just needed he needed that one shot he needed the winning moment that Peter malady got Camy young didn’t and of course the situation and the three putt on 18 is very

Disappointing but this this isn’t far away for him he’s a he’s a big shot away from winning this week it was a good week KP it was he gained throughout the bag in a big way he he gained three Strokes to the field and in all four

Categories on Sunday but yet it still felt like he did not get enough out of the route yeah I think so two things one I I think we would I think we would think about kimy young differently if he had already won right if like let’s say he had won

That open in 2022 or the PGA in 2022 or just something we’d be like oh man cam young man he’s playing well I think he’s going to win The Masters whatever I actually picked him to win The Masters at the start of the year but because he hasn’t won it’s like

H man is he what what’s going on you know what’s what’s the deal and then I think the other thing is I I don’t know that I realized Rick how good he was hitting it this year he’s been he’s he’s had a weird year in terms of finishes

But it’s almost all correlated to his putting I mean almost everything like if you if you go down the list of his good finishes it’s just weak where he’s been good with the Putter and his bad finishes it’s weeks when he’s been bad with the putter now they’ve been kind of

Extreme like he’s had a bunch of like top eights and a bunch of like 70ths or 65s and so that that part has felt I think just a little odd but it’s just so correlated to uh to his putting um that I I think you walk away

Feeling optimistic but also like yeah yo like when when is he gonna win you know I think I think that’s sort of the prevailing feeling from people that are that have been paying close attention to C young for the last couple years uh one one thing on that KP like if we would

Feel different if he had won we would also feel a lot different if he had never really contended you know it’s only his third year on tour and because there’s been so many close calls and he’s been in the mix and Majors he’s on the front Forefront of our minds but if

If this was was like Chandler Phillips you know a coming out party where all of a sudden you’re contending for the first time we’d look at this game and say um okay this guy’s got it he’s already proven to us that he’s got it so now

We’re waiting for the the next big step yeah well it’s it’s kind of like well what what are you are you a star are you a guy that’s GNA win I mean it’s a little bit the Xander question at times maybe less so than Xander because

Xander’s been doing it for a lot longer and at a higher level but but like yeah what are you like do we need to critique you as a star or are you just like just like a a Charles how type or you’re gonna like make 40 mil or 70 mil

But not really win that that much and not really be a star or Superstar I don’t know that we know what cam young is and we’re kind of trying to figure that out and it’s hard to figure it out with such a small sample size which is sort of what you’re

Saying speaking of never really contending Xander shley finished at eight under par a tie for fifth thanks to a splendid Sunday 65 and early Clubhouse leader uh I think he was done when the final group was on the fourth or fifth hole something of that nature

Greg this is a uh this is this is garbage time this is padding your stats this is going to look very very good on the profile uh when we when when I upload that on on Monday but Xander Schley did not stiff contention for one

Second of this event no and gets a T5 out of it look this is um it could be looked at as a a a bad thing or an eye roll but I just watched this guy and he is so good I I Marvel at how how good he is at the game a

Golf he’s unbelievable I mean he had 11 birdie putts today inside of 15 ft so one thing he is working on his golf swing he’s making some changes in his golf swing last week he was very clear about this he was making it work with the scrambling um this week it didn’t

Quite work as well until today so I mean that this could give him some pretty serious confidence um with the new direction that he’s going in unless he just completely bailed on it all and went back to normal I don’t think that happened so there’s definitely a confidence boost with Xander and because

He’s been in contention this year and played so well this year it feels like he should be on the precipice of winning but I’m not sure that he is at that level with his swing in his own mind so ultimately I think this is a really really good sign for Xander who’s

Working on improving his game and and making changes to do it and that can take some time to work through so I think this is a a big step for him Greg it it seems a little bit like he’s the swing is good but it it it’s not necessarily Good Under Pressure right

Now is that is that a fair way to say it and and if and if so then why do you think that is um so we created this thing for Amur called the levels of performance there’s basically seven levels of performance when you’re developing a skill and a

Level one player for instance can make the motion let’s say you’re trying to get your left wrist in a bode position um you can make a golf swing and you can bow your left wrist that’s a level one player level two player can do it with a golf ball there a level three

Player can do it with a golf ball there to a Target on the ring range a level three player can do it uh to a target with a ball there on the golf course and and it goes on until basically you know a level seven player can do it on Sunday

To win a a championship so there are varying levels of performance and Xander’s clearly at a level where he can do it in tournament competition he can do it to a Target but when it’s a chance to win an event like the Players Championship uh it’s a lot more

Challenging and you know most players don’t ever get to that level in their entire career yeah I think Xander has been at that level um Al although right now I don’t think he is what’s what’s the what’s the change because at the Players it reminded me a little bit Rick

Of of what we were seeing with h remember we saw havland at Phoenix last year and you’re like full on Grind Mode he’s he’s grinding his his face off and then he almost wins two majors and that’s a little bit what it felt like was Xander at the on the r

Like I wasn’t at the Players obviously but just watching seeing him on the Range it looked like he was just so like deep in the process what is there a specific change there craigg yeah um his coach Chris coo came on uh on the radio

Show that I do or last week I was talking about it and basically Xander has tendency to get the club a little laid off at the top of the back swing which means the the club lays down a little flatter and they’re trying to work the club a little more uh upright

So it points more down the target line yeah and that helps him straighten out his ball flight a little bit and so at times he gets it at other times he doesn’t that’s the simplest way to explain it so it’s just a little bit of a different pattern yeah but look I’ve

Seen Xander do stuff like this before when when he was um when he was playing in the US Open in 2020 I was I really I wanted to pick him I think I did and there were some people on the Range there because there were no fans some

People on the Range were reporting to me like Xander is lost he’s hitting it miles right and miles left on the Range before he goes out and finishes T5 had a chance on Sunday so I do think there’s part of him that just knows how to go

Put a score on the board yeah even if he’s uncomfortable with his swing which is admirable