Cameron Young goes out early at Travelers, fires 13th sub-60 score in PGA Tour history

Cameron Young became the 12th different player to record a sub-60 score on the PGA Tour on Saturday at the Travelers Championship.

Young shredded TPC River Highlands to the tune of 11-under 59, a score that tied Young for the lead with Tom Kim, though Kim was still about 20 minutes from teeing off when Young wrapped up play.

“Woke up, would have preferred to go back to sleep,” Young said. “… Didn’t feel particularly awesome. I chunked a few less on the range than I did yesterday. Then, yeah, came out and just was very comfortable and things just started coming down close to the hole.”

After teeing off in the 11th group off Saturday – and 4 hours, 15 minutes before Kim’s final pairing – Young birdied three of his first four holes. The hole he didn’t birdie during that stretch? He eagled it, holing out a pitching wedge from 142 yards at the par-4 third.

Young added a second eagle, at the drivable par-4 15th, where he drove it 280 yards with 3-iron to 4 feet and made the putt.

“I’ve hit that club everywhere and I finally hit one just straight at it,” Young said. “I think I said something to the effect of, just give me all the right bounces. And it did. I mean, where that ended up would be a great pitch from the front of the green. So it’s, you know, a really good swing and a great strike, but for it to end up somewhere that you can basically tap it in for 2 is not likely.

“You could hit that same shot a hundred more times and you would get two on that plateau right here.”

Young’s 59 is the Tour’s first sub-60 score since Scottie Scheffler shot 59 at the 2020 Northern Trust at TPC Boston – and 13th overall. It’s also a shot shy of the Travelers record of 58, recorded by Jim Furyk in 2016.

Furyk is the only player to have notched two sub-60 scores on Tour, as he also shot 59 at the 2013 BMW Championship at Conway Farms.

As far as Young’s career achievements go, his 59 doesn’t top the list, says Young, who is winless on Tour but owns seven career runner-up finishes, including a solo second at the 2022 Open Championship at St. Andrews.

“I played some really nice golf,” Young said. “I think like in terms of lifetime achievement there’s definitely some things that go before it for me. It’s one day, it’s one day that you shot a million under. It’s very cool and I’m thankful that my name is on that very short list, but there’s whole tournaments that I’ve played that I’m probably, that I probably would still put above it.”