Cameron Young’s putter was as hot as the Dubai summer weather.
The 26-year-old American leaned on his flat stick Friday to card one of the lowest rounds of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic thus far, an 8-under 64. He leads the tournament by three shots over Englishman Andy Sullivan and Adrian Meronk of Poland going into the weekend.
“I putted fantastic. I made a couple of long ones yesterday and then made a few more today that those had no right going in,” Young said.
“I hit a bunch of good putts, but just one of those days where you have a couple of 30-footers, and you look up, and they are going right in the middle, which doesn’t happen all that often to have a bunch of them in one round. But it was really nice and I putted great.”
Having started on the 10th tee, Young’s first birdie of the day came at the par-4 12th, where he rolled it in from 19 feet.
He continued to take advantage of the back nine on the Majlis Course at the Emirates Club—the easier of the two sides. Young made a birdie at the par-5 13th, then finished his opening nine with three straight par-breakers at the 16th, 17th, and 18th.
Young was on a roll, making the turn at 10-under for the tournament and 5-under on the day.
“I’m doing a really good job of… staying out of my own way,” Young explained. “I realized it was going well early, but the back nine, at the same time, it feels like you should do that to some extent, especially in the morning with not much wind.”
Then, at the par-4 1st, the most challenging hole on the golf course, Young ripped a drive down the middle of the fairway, knocked his second shot 15 feet directly over the flat stick, and confidently rolled it in for a birdie. The first has only yielded eight birdies this week, by far the lowest of any hole.
He was dialed in, and the stats demonstrate that as well. He leads the field in overall strokes gained and strokes gained approaching the green.
“I just played really solidly on the back nine and then made a putt on 1, Young said.
“All of a sudden, [I was on fire]. Just one of those days that they kept going in, and I didn’t make too many mistakes.”
Young made three more birdies at the 3rd, 4th, and 7th holes, the latter two coming on par-3s. He stuck his tee shots inside 10 feet on both of those holes.
And yet, Young’s round was not completely perfect. His big blemish of the day came at the tricky par-4 9th, a hole that snakes around a large body of water. But his second shot found the bottom of the lake and thus had to settle for bogey.
Still, Young walked off the golf course with a sizable lead going into Saturday’s third round. Should his putter stay hot, nobody will be able to catch him.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
