Cameron Young fired a bogey-free, 8-under-par 64 to kick off the Cadillac Championship and take a one-shot lead over Jordan Spieth and Alex Smalley on Thursday outside Miami.
The PGA Tour returned to Trump National Doral and the famed “Blue Monster” for the first time since 2016. The event is a $20 million signature event with no 36-hole cut.
Young won the biggest tournament of his career — The Players Championship — in Florida just six weeks ago. Now No. 4 in the world rankings, Young excelled in his first competitive round at the Blue Monster, making up for 50% driving accuracy by ranking third in the field in strokes gained around the green and strokes gained putting.
Young had four birdies on each nine, including a 41 1/2-foot putt at the par-3 fourth and a 25-footer at the par-3 15th.
“I feel like I made a billion feet of putts, which I think works most places,” Young said. “It’s just one of those days that each mistake I made I was not penalized as much as I could have been. And every time my ball got near the hole it seemed to want to go in today.”
Spieth is one of a handful of players in the field who’s played the Blue Monster in a PGA Tour event, and he got off to a strong start with three birdies and an eagle on the front nine. He mixed four more birdies with two bogeys coming in.
“I remember I went to (caddie Michael Greller) during the day today and just said, ‘Let’s set a new goal, let’s pretend we’re starting over just to stay aggressive, just kind of seeing holes to make birdies versus seeing holes for how hard they are,’ if that makes sense,” Spieth said. “So it was a good strategy.”
The 65 was his lowest round of the year, and he’s in position to make a run at his first trophy since the 2022 RBC Heritage.
“I don’t foresee 7-unders every day, but when the wind was down to start, it was a good time to try to take advantage,” Spieth said. “And the greens were soft enough and not quite fast enough to where if you were controlling the ball off the tee you were going to get some looks.”
Smalley only got into the field through the “Aon Swing 5” that rewards players’ recent performance in standard tour events. He and partner Hayden Springer tied for second at last week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
Smalley ranked second in the field in strokes gained approaching the green as he holed eight birdies with one bogey.
“Having a chance at the win last week was kind of a cool place to be,” said Smalley, who’s yet to win on tour. “I’ve been there one or two times so far in my career, but if you continue to put yourself there more and more often, you just start to be a little more comfortable each time.”
Canadian Nick Taylor is alone in fourth following a bogey-free, 6-under 66. Nico Echavarria of Colombia is in fifth at 5-under 67.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, making his first career start at Doral, birdied three of his first five holes but bogeyed Nos. 10 and 11 and settled for a 1-under 71.
“I just wasn’t capitalizing on a lot of stuff,” Scheffler said. “Felt like I could have holed a few more putts. Couple more fairways. Felt like when I got a touch off, I wasn’t able to get it back and didn’t really steal any shots today.”
–Field Level Media
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