It’s Cameron Young‘s world, and we’re all just living in it. He didn’t just go wire-to-wire to win the Cadillac Championship; he went wire-to-wire and won by six shots on a 7,800-yard golf course with trouble everywhere. He may not be the face of golf, but Young is certainly sliding into the role of the next great American golfer.
Speaking of the golf course, the Blue Monster at Trump National Doral did not come close to meeting even the most reasonable of expectations. The return to Trump’s place was a bore from start to finish for a handful of different reasons.
While Young was cruising to victory in Miami on Sunday, fellow American patriot Nelly Korda was doing the same at the Riviera Maya Open in Mexico. We’re getting flashbacks of her unbelievable 2024 campaign, in which it felt like she was playing an entirely different sport than everyone else.
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Are there worse golf courses than the Blue Monster at Trump’s place on the PGA Tour? Yes. Does the Blue Monster firmly rank in the bottom half of PGA Tour venues? Also, yes, absolutely yes.
Before getting into why Doral made for a complete snooze of a Cadillac Championship, we do have to recognize that where it fell on the PGA Tour calendar did it zero favors. Having it be the first of two straight signature events leading into the PGA Championship was always going to make it a difficult draw, especially with next week’s signature event at Quail Hollow, an admittedly better golf course with much more recent history and familiarity.
This would naturally lead us into a conversation about why signature events, especially those that do not feature a cut, need to be immediately forgotten and never spoken of again, but that’s a lengthy conversation for another day.
The TL;DR of it is that the signature events (somewhat) served their purpose while LIV Golf was handing out blank checks, but there are a few too many on the calendar, and can only be seen as a failure at this point.
Now onto what makes the Blue Monster a not-so-great, completely forgettable golf course on its own.
The only ‘characteristics’ of the golf course are that it is long and there is a lot of water, and that water resides in man-made hazards. Without significant wind, the Blue Monster turns into just another golf course that the best players in the world can overpower. Yes, technology is to blame for some of that, but that’s just the reality we’re living in.
In the scenario when the wind does pick up at Doral, it turns into what feels like a never-ending replay of the same hole with the same long-iron shots, with the same threat of water. Nothing, at all, stands out.
For those reading this and shouting, ‘What about the history?’ The cold-hard truth about that is that a majority of golf fans today don’t remember it or simply don’t care about it. The Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson duel at Doral took place 21 years ago.
The golf world only remembers the history of major championships, and it certainly forgets the moments from a golf course taken out of the Tour’s rotation that, upon its return, offers up zero engaging qualities.
It took Young 94 starts on the PGA Tour before securing his maiden victory at the 2025 Wyndham Championship, a tournament he won by six shots. Since checking that box, he further stepped into the spotlight at the 2025 Ryder Cup and has won both The Players and a signature event by six shots in less than two months in 2026.
Given that he won the Cadillac Championship by a half-dozen shots and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was the closest to catch him, it’s fair to say nobody was beating Young this week at Doral.
His distance off the tee has always gotten all of the love and attention, but it’s his putter that has turned into a legitimate weapon in 2026, moving him all the way up to No. 4 in the Data Golf rankings.
CAMERON YOUNG CALLS TOUGH PENALTY ON HIMSELF, IMMEDIATELY GETS REWARDED BY GOLF GODS AT DORAL
Young was fourth in the field in strokes gained: off the tee at Doral and first in strokes gained: putting. When that’s the case, he falls into the elite category of players like Rory McIlroy and Scheffler, where blowout victories are very much on the table.
Aside from his abilities with a golf club in his hand, it’s been interesting to see Young be embraced specifically by American golf fans.
He’s very similar to Scheffler in the sense that he’s just a normal guy who wants to hang out with his family and go to church on Sunday, but things feel new and different with Young, based simply on the fact that he’s the ‘new guy’ on the block.
Prior to him winning The Players, Young was just known as a very reserved person who oozes talent. Since then, we’ve learned more about his personal life, him being a father of three young kids, and just a guy the everyday, God-fearing, red, white and blue loving American can pull for with ease.
And for the critics crying about how Young was born on third base as the son of a PGA professional at Sleepy Hollow in New York, that’s not his fault.
He’s still the guy who earned his Tour card by competing on the Korn Ferry Tour and the one ultimately hitting the golf shots to get his hands on trophies.
Korda followed up her five-shot, major victory at the Chevron Championship a week ago by flying to Mexico and winning the Riviera Maya Open by four. She now has three victories to her name in 2026, and it’s impossible not to draw comparisons to what we saw out of her in 2024.
Two seasons ago, Korda won seven times, which included her first Chevron Championship title. She shockingly didn’t hoist a single trophy in 2025, but it is abundantly clear she’s clicking on every single level in 2026 as she has not finished worse than runner-up in her six starts this season.
LPGA’S MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIP GREENSIDE PLUNGE POOL IS PREPOSTEROUS IN EVERY WAY
In her six starts, Korda has lost by a combined eight shots. A made putt here and there, a missed opportunity from the leader, and we could be talking about Korda with five victories in six starts. The reason it wouldn’t be six for six is that Lauren Coughlin bested Korda and the rest of the field by five shots at the Aramco Championship.
With her win in Mexico, the 27-year-old Korda became the youngest American player since Nancy Lopez in 1980 to reach 18 career victories on the LPGA.
We’re still a month out from the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club, but it’s difficult not to look ahead and circle that one as Korda’s to lose on an iconic track.
