NAPA, Calif. (AP) — Bethpage Black is a big ballpark on Long Island that made the boy feel even smaller. He was holding his father's hand on Father's Day in 2002 as they watched the U.S. Open won by Tiger Woods. It was Cameron Young's first glimpse of golf at the highest level.
He was 5, already hitting a pyramid stack of range balls until his tiny hands were sore, able to hit a wedge into a 55-gallon drum from 30 yards away.
Young has a much clearer memory of the day in 2013 when the PGA of America
announced golf's rowdiest event, the Ryder Cup, would be played in 2025 at Bethpage Black with its notoriously loud New York fans who felt ownership of the state-owned course.
By then he was a junior in high school, good enough and old enough to dream, even if it felt so far away.
“That golf course is where our state Open was every year. That was the big tournament for me at that point,” Young said, who in 2017 became the first amateur to win the New York State Open with a course-record 64 at the Black. “I knew that golf course was a major championship golf course, and that was my route to play it.”
But a Ryder Cup?
“At the time it was like, ‘That’s where I'd like to be in 2025 in September,'" he said, pausing to smile. "So it's been a long time coming.”
Young is every bit of New York. He is the son of Sleepy Hollow's longtime professional. He took the train to school at Fordham Prep in the Bronx. He was all about the Yankees, Rangers and Giants as a kid who played hockey and baseball when he wasn't pounding golf balls.
“We’re very proud to have a New Yorker on our team and represent his country at Bethpage Black,” Keegan Bradley said when he announced Young as one of his captain's pick.
It might have been 12 years in the making, but this really transpired over three months.
Young was at No. 67 in the world at the start of May, not even eligible for the final two majors of the year. He was nowhere near the conversation to be in the Ryder Cup, yet no less determined for his one shot at a Ryder Cup in his native New York.
Big pressure required small steps.
“Break par for a couple of days in a row, hit some good shots, put together a week,” Young said. “We started doing those little things better and better and built some belief."
He had his first top 10 in four months in May at the Truist Championship. A month later as a U.S. Open qualifier, he birdied three of his last four holes to get into a 5-for-1 playoff and then made a 12-foot birdie to earn his way to Oakmont, where he tied for fourth.
He also tied for fourth in Canada to earn a spot in the British Open. And then came his first PGA Tour title at the Wyndham Championship in August when he won by six shots.
“I had to win something just to put myself in the question," Young said.
The answer became increasingly obvious when Young followed that win with three strong performances in the postseason. Then came that call from Bradley with the best news of his career, better in his mind than winning for the first time on tour.
“This Ryder Cup in particular — in New York, at Bethpage — is so special to me,” Young said the day he was chosen. “I've been picturing the moment that I can possibly get a call to play on the team for a very, very long time.”
This is truly a family celebration.
David Young, his father, recently retired as the golf director at Sleepy Hollow. He is the only coach his son ever had, a patient voice during frustrating times, such as seven runner-up finishes without doing much wrong. Young averaged 66.7 on Sunday in those losses. It was always someone else's turn.
His mother, Barbara, grew up around golf at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey and ran the Central Florida Challenge mini-tour for women for 13 years in the Orlando area.
The father taught the swing. Mom provided the support, often as his caddie.
“The first tournament we took Cam to he was 9,” she said. “There was a practice round and he was paired with a father and son, and the father was micromanaging this kid. I took him aside and said, ‘Cam, I’m your caddie. You're the player. This is how it will be. Every decision is on you, but you can ask me what I think. But if you misbehave, I'm still your mom.'”
This was never about grooming an only child for greatness. His mother saw enough talent that she thought Young could enjoy the game wherever it led.
David Young recalls a family trip to Scotland when his son was 13. It rained every day but the last one as they played the likes of Crail and Gleneagles, North Berwick and St. Andrews. The weather was miserable. His son was soaked.
“He had a big smile on his face with a bucket hat on," David Young said. “Here I am thinking after six days of rain he'll never want to play golf again. On the plane home, he leaned over and said, ‘I think I’m going to make golf my main sport.'”
It took him to Wake Forest (and an economics degree in four years) and onto the PGA Tour, where he was rookie of the year in 2022 after nearly winning two majors.
Young is 28, an old soul who doesn't say much but always gets to the point. He is living in south Florida with his wife and three children, ages 3, 2 and 1. He isn’t on social media and doesn’t bother with it. His phone is primarily used to check his tee times and text his wife.
“I prefer things to be simple,” he said. "My attention is either on my children or on my job.”
Now the attention is on winning Ryder Cup points at Bethpage Black, a course an hour away from where he grew up, a course he first saw at age 5 and has loved ever since.
“He’s had his sights on this since high school,” Barb Young said. “The fact it has come to reality, we’re kind of stunned about it. I’m so happy for him and for Dave. I know firsthand from being around golf what it takes to make it happen. Not everyone gets the reward. It’s such a sweet blessing for the family.”
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
