Cameron Young holds a five-shot lead in the Wyndham Championship, but will he finally break his PGA Tour duck, or will he prove a sitting one?
Golf betting tips: Wyndham Championship final round
2pts Nico Echavarria to win the tournament at 7/1 (Ladbrokes, Coral)
2pts Webb Simpson top 10 at 15/2 (Sporting Index, SpreadEx)
There are many great mysteries in the world. Was Mount Everest scaled in 1924? What happened to the Marie Celeste? Who was Jack the Ripper? And the biggest riddle of them all: when will Cameron Young finally end his winless streak on the PGA Tour?
The 28-year-old New Yorker has done pretty much everything but lift a trophy at the top level of professional golf. He was a two-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2021, is a six-time top-10 finisher in the major championships, and, in all, he has 11 top-three finishes on the PGA Tour.
Heading into the final round of the Wyndham Championship he leads by five shots so has a golden opportunity to change the narrative and yet oddly it is new territory for him: his first-ever PGA Tour 54-hole advantage. True, both those second tier wins came off a solo lead at this stage, but his only other experience of being in front was when he was two shots clear in the 2024 Dubai Desert Classic and was beaten into third by Rory McIlroy and Adrian Meronk.
Rounds of 63-62-65 have built his 20-under total this week and he holds that healthy advantage over Colombia’s Nico Echavarria with Chris Kirk, Mac Meissner and the defending champion Aaron Rai of England sharing third on 12-under (fully eight strokes back of the leader).
Young’s often derided putting has been quite impressive this summer (he’s ranked in the top 12 four times) but he’s really flying this week and currently tops the strokes-gained rankings. The significant difference so far this week is in his driving (ranking second, his best effort since early June) and approach work (13th which, if he maintains it, will be his best since May last year).
Unsurprisingly he was asked if he felt he had a monkey on his back. “Not really,” he insisted. “If you had asked me two years ago I’d probably say yes, but if you go back through (the records), I finished second a bunch and gotten beat a lot (rather than gave it away). I’ve played some good golf on Sunday in all those cases. That’s all I’m trying to do tomorrow. I’m starting in a nice spot and looking to beat second place by as many as I can.”
He also said he will keep the foot to the floor because, “there is an 8, a 9 or a 10-under out there and I’d like to be the one to shoot it as opposed to come second or third.” That could be a fine policy, of course, but it might introduce danger and it’s interesting he referenced second or third.
Clearly he’s in a mighty healthy position and, what’s more, since the tournament returned to Sedgefield Country Club in 2008, not one winner in 17 renewals has overcome a four-shot pre-final round deficit.
But let’s take Young on with NICO ECHAVARRIA, a two-time PGA Tour champion who can play a little more freely than the leader. Earlier this week he said of his current state of mind: “Be aggressive. I don’t have anything to be conservative about. I’m 65th in the FedEx Cup rankings.” He added that: “The mental part of my game is spot on.”
After his third round he sounded confident. “I’ve been there before and I like being in this position, I like being in the final group. I’m not going to hide tomorrow. We play tournaments to win.” He also noted of the pace-setter: “He’s probably leading off the tee and hitting it close. That’s probably why he’s leading the tournament.” And then added of his course strategy: “Clearly he’s being aggressive off the tee and it’s hard to do it out here.”
It’s also true that Sedgefield is a Donald Ross design, as is Detroit GC which hosts the Rocket Mortgage Classic and the last four winners of the Wyndham dropped a huge hint a few weeks before in Motor City. Aaron Rai (2024) was second there, Lucas Glover (2023) was fourth, Tom Kim (2022) was seventh, and Kevin Kisner was eighth. Echavarria was sixth. We’ll take him at 7/1.
We’ll add a top 10 for WEBB SIMPSON who hasn’t hit that mark on the PGA Tour since this tournament in 2023 but his best finish this season (T16) came at Waialae in the Sony Open which is the only course the veteran has played all year that is shorter than this week. He’s currently two blows outside the top 10 and many of those above him will be busy trying to tie up various short, medium or long term futures.
Some will have their performance enhanced by such pressure, others will be distracted and Simpson, who is putting better this week than for a long, long time, could pounce on a track where he has 10 top-10 finishes from his last 14 completed starts. He’s 15/2 in places and around 6/1 generally to add another.
Posted at 1055 BST on 03/08/25
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