Cameron Young began Friday tied for last at the Tour Championship before playing East Lake alone and firing an 8-under 62 to surge into contention.
Cameron Young teed off first at East Lake on Friday, alone, because he had nowhere to go but up.
An opening-round 70 had left him tied for last in the 30-man field, and J.J. Spaun's withdrawal with a shoulder injury meant there was no playing partner to pair him with. So Young walked the course by himself to kick off the second round and proceeded to shoot the round of the tournament.
His 8-under 62 vaulted him from the bottom of the leaderboard into a share of the lead at the time he signed his card. It was the fastest round of 62 or better in FedEx Cup playoff history.
The round was close to flawless. Young made seven birdies, an eagle and just one bogey, hitting 13 of 14 fairways and rolling in 136 feet of putts. He posted a 30 on the front nine behind three straight birdies from Nos. 4 through 6, then opened the back nine with two more. A bogey at the par-4 12th briefly stalled him at 6-under, where he remained through five consecutive pars. Then came the finish, a 41-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th that he called his best putt of the season.
Every part of his game showed up. Young ranked first in the field in strokes gained off the tee and strokes gained putting, second in approach and ninth around the green, gaining 4.209 strokes on the field.
Playing solo turned out to be less strange than expected.
"I've never done it before," Young said afterward. "Once you kind of get over the fact that they just announced one person on the 1st hole, it's kind of more like a practice round. After a couple of holes, you're just playing, and it was going well, and it was nice to be in our own bubble and just keep going."
He was also realistic about what the number meant in context.
"You see 62 out here a lot of days. Last couple of years there's been one a lot of days and you have to be the one to shoot it on a day like today," Young said, a nod to how gettable East Lake has played this week. Min Woo Lee opened with a 62 of his own on Thursday.
What makes the round meaningful is the frustration behind it. Young told reporters he had been upset with himself for four or five weeks after falling off the pace he set earlier in the year. That start was extraordinary. He won THE PLAYERS Championship and the Cadillac Championship, added six other top-10 finishes, took second at The Open and finished third at the Masters. Few players in the world have had a better 2026.
A Tour Championship title would be the perfect punctuation to a career year and would strengthen Young's case in the Player of the Year conversation. After Friday, he had put himself in position to chase one.
