DORAL, Fla. — Cameron Young finally made his first bogey of the week at the Cadillac Championship. It was hard to find him on the weekend.
Young shot a 5-under 67 on Friday to move to 13 under and take a five-shot lead midway through the $20 million signature event at Trump International Doral.
Young’s one flaw: a bogey on the par-4 14th, where his chip from an unusual sidehill spot didn’t reach the putt. Otherwise, he was flawless — as he was Thursday when he carded a bogey-free 64 to take the lead.
He found the 14th a stroke back two holes later, when he drove to the green on the par-4 16th and coolly put two in for his 14th birdie of the week.
“There’s a lot of golf to be played on a tough golf course,” Young said. “But so far, I’ve played well.”
Youth played with Scottie Scheffler; The world No. 1 had a bogey-free 67 but ended the day where he started — seven shots off the lead.
Nick Taylor (70), Alex Smalley (71) and Jordan Spieth (71) are tied for second. Gary Woodland (69) was tied for fifth at 7 under and Scheffler was among a large group of players — Alex Fitzpatrick among them — at 6 under.
“I really don’t need to go any further,” Scheffler said. “No, it depends on how the golf is played. All I can do is go out and commit to what I have to do and that’s great.”
Young even had his mistakes corrected for him. He hated the birdie putt he hit on the par-4 13th, starting to walk toward the hole with the ball about halfway there.
Some guys do that when they know they just made a putt.
The youth was not in that mindset. He gave an almost apologetic wave as the ball dropped into the cup.
“I was disgusted almost there,” Young said. “I think my reading got it right, but I just thought it would go a little bit to the left and a little bit to the right and it ended up being six inches left and six inches right. … If you put it right, some of those, they tend to curve into the hole and that one does.”
Spieth rolled in a birdie on the par-4 18th, a rarity in the first two rounds at Doral. The 18th on the Blue Monster course is a critical test, with water lining the left and greatly reducing the fairway for all but the biggest hitters.
Spieth’s birdie was his sixth on the 18th in the first two days of the tournament.
“It’s a really tough game for a lot of guys,” Taylor said.
18 even gave Young some trouble. Or he tried, anyway.
Young’s second shot on the finishing hole went off the base of the bleachers, landing in the center of the nest of fairways on the back of the green. He took a drop, didn’t get an amazing lie with that, and he kept tapping to the actual tapping distance to maintain his level.
“I might have two or three or four leads starting tomorrow, but it just goes by so fast,” Young said. “There is no sense in playing as if you have a four-goal lead. You might as well play as if you are behind.”
He noted what happened to start the second round, and used that as his evidence that the leaderboard could be very tight before he played in Round 3 on Saturday afternoon.
Kurt Kitayama and Sudarshan Yellamaraju — the first team out on Friday morning — made the most of the calm conditions. Both rose to the top of the leaderboard; Kitayama had a round of 8-under 64 (including a bogey at 18) and Yellamaraju was 9-under in the round of 16 before three-putting his last two holes to finish with a 66.
Both are less than 4 a week.
“It really helps when you play together,” said Kitayama. “The rhythm, being first, helps. We didn’t have to wait for anyone, we kind of went at our own pace, not worrying about being behind or waiting for the team. So, when you both play well, it’s nice to feed off each other.”
