To the surprise of absolutely no one, Cameron Young is your PGA Tour Rookie Of The Year and recipient of the Arnold Palmer award.
Last year it was Will Zalatoris, a Wake Forest guy and this go-round it’s Young, another Wake Forest guy and that marks the first time two players from the same school have been named the Tour’s top rookie.
“Well, it’s very special,” said Young, who had a pair of third-place performances (including the PGA Championship) to go with his five runner-up showings, which included a solo second at the Open Championship. Young finished 18th in the final FedExCup standings.
“I know the namesake Arnold Palmer obviously was a giant in the game of golf and we have him to thank for a lot of what we do today, what the PGA TOUR is,” he said. “To be related to that in some small way is very cool. I know we had a very strong rookie class and I know it’s voted by my peers, so it’s a huge honor to be thought of in that way, just to kind of finish the year that way.”
Young said his season’s proudest moment was finishing second at the 150th Open Championship at storied St. Andrews. He drove the green and eagled the 72nd hole to shoot 65 on Sunday – including a blistering back nine of 31 – but still got clipped by another Cameron — Australia’s Cameron Smith.
Young got off to a bit of a slow start Thursday at the CJ Cup with an opening 73 — two-over par at Congaree.
Mullinax, Woodland — Unlikely Leaders At CJ Cup:
There were two unlikely players at the top of the leader-board on Thursday at the CJ Cup — Trey Mullinax and Gary Woodland.
Both shot six-under par 65s in the early going and those numbers held up by day’s end. Mullinax got the best of the front nine — he was five-under on that side, one-under coming home. He’s No. 116 in the world rankings and missed the cut in his first two events of the new season — the Fortinet and Sanderson Farms.
Woodland has fallen to 97 in the world rankings and he started his new season with a T64 at the Fortinet then missed the cut at Sanderson Farms and withdrew at The Shriners.
Rory Leads Players From Top 10:
With six of the world’s top 10 in the field, world No. 2 Rory McIlroy got off to a nice start in his quest to overtake Scottie Scheffler for the No. 1 spot. Rory’s five-under par 66 put him just a shot off the lead. No. 5 Jon Rahm shot 69 (two-under), No. 8 Justin Thomas’ 68 put him in a tie for 15th while No. 9 Collin Morikawa and No. 10 Matt Fitzpatrick were in with one-under par 70s. No. 1 Scheffler was off to a sluggish start — he shot even par 71.
Spieth, Fowler Ride The Struggle Bus:
Tough first round at Congaree for two big names — Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler. Spieth shot a four-over par 75 that left him near the bottom of the scoreboard. He had a 40 on the front nine and he had to birdie the ninth hole to shoot that four-over number. That included a triple bogey at the sixth hole thanks to one of his too-often errant tee shots. He settled down and finished even par on the back nine.
Fowler was in one of the day’s featured pairings with Rory McIlroy and Tom Kim. Good day for Roy and Tom, not so good for Rickie. Fowler was three-over through his first six holes thanks in part to a double-bogey at the par five fourth. Rickie got things back in order and finished the final nine holes in even par and recorded a 74.
