HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Cameron Young’s recent play didn’t scream contender heading into the first round of the RBC Heritage.
He missed the cut in last week’s Masters. Didn’t get out of pool play in the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Missed the cut in The Players Championship. That means he hasn’t played on a Saturday in five weeks.
And he had never played Harbour Town Golf Links.
All that didn’t matter.
Young was in the first group off at 7:10 a.m. local time and right around noon signed for a bogey-free, 8-under 63 to grab the clubhouse lead on Thursday.
A key for Young, who won twice last year on the Korn Ferry Tour to earn his PGA Tour playing privileges, was staying in Augusta after missing the Masters cut with rounds of 77-77.
RBC Heritage: PGA Tour Live on ESPN+
“I hung out with my wife and my son, my in-laws, my parents. We had a house for the week. We just spent some family time there and I practiced,” he said. “Just some small swing stuff and kind of got stuff out of sync. Maybe reverted back to some tendencies I’ve had my whole life. Just making some minor fixes just to make it feel like I’m in a little bit more control.
“I’ve shown that I can compete at this level, but so far in the couple majors I’ve gotten to play, I haven’t been able to do that. I think it just gives me more reason to go out and try to get better to a point where I’m more comfortable and able to have a week where I contend in one of those.”
Winning his first PGA Tour title would help his comfort level; he’s finished runner-up twice this season, at the Sanderson Farms Championship and Genesis Invitational. Young opened up an early three-stroke lead on five players – Patrick Cantlay, Graeme McDowell, Shane Lowry, Miro Pereira, and Corey Conners.
Conners punctuated his 66 with a hole-in-one on the seventh hole – a 7-iron from 187 yards. It was his fourth ace in the past three seasons, the most of any player.
🚨 ACE ALERT 🚨@CoreConn rolls it in perfectly at the 187-yard 7th! pic.twitter.com/wzJZKLZuNS
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 14, 2022
“I think it’s pretty cool. There’s a lot of luck involved to make it,” he said. “I guess, if you hit enough solid iron shots, you’ll get lucky time and time again. So it’s been pretty awesome to have made four. Hopefully, they keep coming, but I’m probably done for a while now.”
As a rookie, one of the main challenges for Young and others is learning golf courses they’ve never seen before. Other than watching the RBC Heritage a few times on TV, Young knew very little about Harbour Town.
But he didn’t rush to get here, didn’t rush to play as many holes. He’s learned he has to pace himself to get the most out of himself.
“If we tried to be fully prepared every week, I would be exhausted by Thursday,” Young said. “I had a nice couple days off last weekend, so we got here, and I played Monday morning, played all 18 holes, which I think was kind of nice because I got to see them all and kind of think about it for a couple days before I really had to play. Whereas typically you’re lucky to see all 18 holes by Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s hard to strike the correct balance of being prepared but keeping yourself fresh. Honestly, I wanted to play last weekend, but in terms of this week, it’s not the end of the world. I’ve had a couple days to practice and get here a little early.”
