Cameron or Cam — he doesn’t care.
An oddity of golf on TV is that when Young’s name appears on a leaderboard it often shows up in full. SCHEFFLER, MCILROY and CAMERON YOUNG. That’s because of the existence of Carson Young, whose name necessitates more than just a simple “C. YOUNG” distinction. But why CAMERON vs. just CAM? I’ve always been vaguely curious. So I asked just before we started rolling. Cameron — or Cam, if you’d prefer — said he doesn’t care either way; nobody’s really asked him about the leaderboard thing. So, yeah.
Here are 10 other things I learned from a 45-minute “Warming Up” range session with Young.
1. He starts with a 62-degree wedge
Young has started taking the beginning of his warmup more seriously, he says, once he realized that half-wedge shots are a hole in his game.
“I used to start with the 57 degree,” Young says. “But we kind of noticed that my partial wedges, like real short stuff with [the 62], statistically I was not any good. So I’m kind of trying to passively improve by just starting with 62, because I never really hit it except for on the course, like from 70 yards.”
2. He’s not lifting heavy pre-round
We’ve heard more and more from pros in recent years who are going through legitimate workouts pre-round. Not Young, though.
“I see a physio [for] a little stretching, a little bit of like soft tissue. A very simple warmup I would say. A couple bands, but nothing major,” he says. No big weights? “No, absolutely not. And then I putt and I chip and go to the range.”
3. He wears AirPods … and sometimes listens to nothing.
Young wearing AirPods is a familiar sight — particularly since he went viral for leaving one in while he played the first hole at Bay Hill last year. So what’s the story with the AirPods? It turns out they’re not even always playing something.
“I have them in most of the time. Sometimes I have something on, sometimes I don’t,” Young says. He’ll get a daily message that he’ll listen to through the earbuds as he warms up; that’s the only sure thing.
“My mental coach, he sends me something to focus on that day. And usually from that point, [they’re] off … it’s kind of like a separation point of like, okay, things have started.”
As for the first-hole incident? Young says what’s crazy isn’t that he left it in — it’s how he found out.
“The only reason that I noticed it was because I hit my first ball out of bounds left and then I hit the second one so far right that when I went to collect my first one it disconnected from my phone and made the sound,” he said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have known … only saved by the fact that I hit two awful shots. Otherwise, it would have stayed.”
4. He has a few “stock” wedge numbers
It’s interesting to hear how different pros blend feel vs. pre-rehearsed swings, but one thing is consistent: they know how far their wedges fly. Young has different numbers for different clubs depending on how far back he takes the club.
“Just about the hardest I hit [my 62 degree] normally is what I call an 11 o’clock [swing], which for this is 88 to 90 yards. I can probably hit it 100 or 102, but I don’t very often.”
That’s because his 57-degree wedge slots in nicely there.
“One of my kind of stock numbers with 57 is 100 [yards],” he says. “So I don’t have any need to really hit [62] hard unless it’s really downwind or the greens are super firm or something.”
That’s a 10 o’clock 57-degree wedge that’s flying 100, if you’re keeping track at home.
5. He didn’t live on the range as a kid
Young had a dream golfing childhood: he grew up on the short course at Sleepy Hollow, just north of New York City, where his father was head pro. Young said he spent his hours chasing daylight on the course rather than grinding it out on the range.
“I probably chipped more than I spent time at the range,” he says. “I loved chipping. But I played a lot. I would get out on the course and play as much as I could, especially late in the afternoon. Go out there with my father or with my mom and just see how many holes we could play.”
6. He’s committed to the draw lifestyle
For a while Young was trying to hit the perfect shot for every situation. But he found some real comfort in getting back to his swing DNA, which meant embracing the draw. That’s the case with driver, with his irons — and even with his wedges.
“You watched Tiger in his prime hit [every shot shape],” he says. “And in theory, if you want to be as good as you can be, you want be able to hit every shot. But I think for most people, it probably just isn’t practical.”
In Young’s debut PGA Tour victory, a runaway at the Wyndham Championship, he says he was actually hitting big hooks. But he’s hoping to settle into a manageable draw shape. “And now I’ve kind of like just gone back a little more neutral.”
What’s the comfort of the consistent shape? He summed it up like this: “I like generally knowing that I’m not gonna start it left and it’s not gonna curve right.”
7. He’s obsessed with process.
Young works on his mental game “consistently,” he says. Even if it’s not a thrilling thing to do.
“I think it’s one of those things, it gets boring when it’s good,” he says. “I mean, you hear Scottie Scheffler talk about it all the time. All he’s concerned about is what he’s doing at the moment, trying to hit a good shot. At the end of the day that is the most effective way to do it. But to do that day in, day out over the course of a season, a week, you know, whatever it is, it gets tedious for sure.”
Young adds that process talk has spilled over to cooking with his 3- and 4-year old sons.
“In our household, we joke about being committed to your process, whatever it is. Making eggs,” he says.
8. You don’t need to keep your lead arm straight
Young’s trademark move is a pause at the top of his swing, although interestingly he doesn’t really think of it as a pause. But what’s also interesting is the way Young’s left arm breaks down at that point in his swing, defying one old-school “rule” of the golf swing.
“I’ve tried to change it,” Young admits. But ultimately he thinks it’s probably fine, and that he’s in good company with a bent left arm. “I think in my case [the arm] bends and then by the time I get back out to [the start of his downswing] it’s at full length … as far as bent at the top, there’s a lot of guys, Scottie’s up there like that. Jordan [Spieth]. All kinds of guys have a little bend in the arm up there.”
9. Pulling 3-wood doesn’t guarantee you’ll hit the fairway
There’s still an old-school line of thinking that hitting 3-wood off the tee is a safer, smarter way to operate. Young’s 3-wood mentality is different. It’s also simple.
“It’s mostly a club to leave short of stuff,” he says. “I don’t find that I hit it that much straighter than the driver. You’re not necessarily trying to maximize distance because you’re hitting it to maybe lay short of a bunker. I just kind of want it to go to a number and stay.
“So I don’t take out 3-wood because I’m nervous about hitting it straight. If anything, I’m probably more comfortable hitting driver [straight].”
10. Everybody can set up properly
Young has plenty of complex swing feels, but what he thinks about most often — and the advice he doles out most often to amateur playing partners — is to lock in on a good neutral setup.
“Everybody can set up properly,” he says. “There’s nothing keeping anybody from setting up with pretty square feet, shoulders, hips … but they just don’t practice it.
“Most people’s concept of reality is pretty off. Even mine. I fight it; you’ll see me like twist in all kinds of different ways.”
Young demonstrates his left foot shooting forward and his left shoulder shooting open, essentially closing hips relative to his target. He spends plenty of time at the range just trying to find neutral, rehearsing the very beginning move in his swing and making sure he’s lined up correctly.
“It’s just a constant battle,” he says.
Ain’t that the truth.
You can watch the full Warming Up interview below or on YouTube here.
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