SOUTHPORT, England (AP) — Cameron Young was waiting on the range at Royal Birkdale, driver in hand, when a huge roar came that he didn’t want to hear.
Just a stone’s throw away on the 18th green, Ryan Fox had holed a 12-foot birdie putt to win the British Open.
There’d be no playoff for Young.
No chance to end his wait for a first major championship title.
The American bowed his head, swung his driver gently over his shoulder then back onto the ground,
and trudged off.
Some 2½ hours earlier, Young had been on that 18th hole himself, getting up-and-down from a greenside bunker — he actually nearly holed it — to salvage bogey and shoot 64 for what would remain the lowest score of the final round.
Then came the long, agonizing wait to discover whether his 9-under 271 total would be enough to win.
Young had some food, cleared out his locker — “for efficiency’s sake,” he said — and spent some time in the players’ lounge.
By 6 p.m., he was practicing on the putting green.
And around half an hour later, the spectators in the huge grandstands lining one of the most famous walks in golf gave him the bad news.
Add Birkdale to the 29-year-old Young's close calls at the majors, following a runner-up finish at the British Open in 2022 — he made eagle on the final hole to be one stroke back from Cameron Smith at St. Andrews — and a tie for third at the Masters this year after sharing the 54-hole lead.
Now up to No. 4 in the world, the widespread belief in golfing circles is that Young's time will come. That's because he has risen to elite company this year with wins at The Players Championship in March and the Cadillac Championship at Doral, in front of President Donald Trump, a couple of months later.
Speaking after his round, Young said he thought 10-under par would have a “decent chance” of victory.
So it proved.
And he would have got there — or maybe better — had he not found a fairway bunker on No. 18 after choosing to hit driver. He barely got out of the sand with his second shot that struck the top of the bunker wall and spilled out 20 yards forward, and went on to scramble bogey.
A par there would have seen him match the lowest final-round score in a major.
A birdie? Well, that would have won him the whole thing.
“It could have been 60,” Young said of his round that included a front-nine 29.
“I played a great round of golf,” he added, “and I did it in a really good way.”
Young's thoughts after Fox completed victory are a mystery because he declined to talk to the media.
He surely will regret his 3-over 73 on Saturday that came after two 67s and dropped him to a tie for 20th overnight.
“I had a chance to win with not everything I’ve got,” he said. “So I think that’s a good takeaway.”
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
