Cam Young Opens Masters with 40, Now Tied for Lead Heading into Sunday

AUGUSTA, Ga. — There is a number floating around Augusta National this week, a number that once belonged to Tiger Woods in 1997: 40. Cameron Young shot 40 on his opening nine Thursday at the Masters. Woods shot 40 on his opening nine that April Sunday too. Woods went on to win by 12 strokes. Now Young, 28, finds himself in the same unusual position Woods did — hot after cold, contenders crown after a nightmare start.

Young enters the final round of the 90th Masters tied for the lead with Rory McIlroy at 11 under par. His 54-hole totals: 73, 67, 65. The progression is striking — a stumble out of the gates, then two rounds of increasingly sharp, controlled golf that have put him on the precipice of his first major championship.

The New York native and Wake Forest product has been building toward this moment. He was runner-up at the British Open at St. Andrews in 2022, a stone's throw from his likely future in golf's history books. Last month, he captured the Players Championship, a signature victory that silenced any lingering questions about whether his game could translate to the biggest stages. Now he stands one round from something far larger.

"I don't get the sense I'll be the fan favorite," Young told reporters Saturday night, a self-assessment delivered with the dry, straight-ahead candor that has come to define him. He wasn't fishing for sympathy. He was simply stating the obvious. McIlroy, the four-time major champion and gallery favorite, will command most of the roars. But Young has seen the other side of that equation — he was in the twosome directly ahead of McIlroy during last year's Open at the Old Course, where the chants and songs for the Northern Irishman were audible from the fairway ahead.

Young's Sunday will begin with church, followed by physio, the range, a practice bunker, the putting green, and then the first tee. He has three children under the age of four. The schedule of a Masters Sunday is unforgiving, but Young has never struck observers as someone who flinches from a challenge.

He and McIlroy will head out in the final twosome at 2:25 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon. The pairing is comfortable for both, having played together through the first two rounds. McIlroy admitted as much when asked to compare Sunday at this Masters with last year's finale against Bryson DeChambeau. "I think the pairing will be just a little bit easier," McIlroy said. "I played with Cam the first two days and playing with him again on Sunday. I think it's a comfortable group for both of us."

Comfortable does not mean uncomplicated. The Augusta National closing stretch has broken better players than either of them. Mid-80s temperatures are forecast for Sunday afternoon, and Young has never played a Masters Sunday in contention. But his six nine-hole scores through three rounds — 40-33, 34-33, 32-33 — tell the story of a player getting progressively sharper as the tournament wears on. The 40 is a distant memory now. Everything Young touches seems to be finding the center of the clubface. His demeanor remains stoic, almost preternaturally calm, but the game underneath is cooking.

Whether the结局 writes itself the same way it did for Woods in 1997 remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: Cameron Young will not wilt under the Augusta sun. He never has.