PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 13, 2026

Cameron Young

Aronimink Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: : We'd like to welcome Cameron Young to the 108th PGA Championship.

Talk about how you're feeling coming into this week.

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I feel good. The results have been good. I feel like generally I've been pretty solid across the board. There hasn't been a single -- statistically there's nothing unbelievable, but it's just solid all around.

I've done a really good job taking advantage of the opportunities that I've had to finish high in tournaments and fortunate to win a couple times.

Q. All majors are majors, Cam. I'd like to know if this one holds any type of special meaning just given your background.

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, sure, the PGA Championship, for our family is a great week. My dad was a PGA of America professional forever. I think kind of embraced the whole package of that. He was at a great club in New York, worked on the rules committee. So, yeah, this week is special for us.

Unfortunately, he never qualified for the tour, but he was a very good player and had a number of chances to throughout his career. Yeah, it's a cool one for us just given his connection.

Q. Did you ever spend much time at PGAs as a kid just because of what your dad was doing?

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I had been to a couple. I think I went to -- he officiated Baltusrol. I think he did about ten, maybe a couple more. Not a ton, but I'd been to a few.

Q. Any special privileges that week as a 10-year-old?

CAMERON YOUNG: No. I was outside the ropes like everyone else.

Q. As you kind of worked your way to the point where you are now -- and I know you're very much in the moment. But is there an element where you appreciated the success that's come because it took a moment, all those seconds and whatnot as you were grinding through that, knowing you had played good golf but you hadn't gotten the results. How much more do you appreciate the fact that you've been on this run right now?

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I certainly do. I think any time you have to wait for something, it makes it better, you know. I think it would be -- in a sense, it would be harder if I had won a couple times early and then went a long time without winning.

Now I feel like to have kind of had several years build up to now winning a couple times pretty quickly, it makes it feel pretty good.

I mean, to have gotten through what was at times quite frustrating and come out on the other side of it a better golfer and to have my name on a couple trophies to show for it definitely feels good.

Q. Is there a trick or maybe something you're trying to figure out as you go now to sustaining this and not taking it for granted?

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I feel like, especially given my first few years on TOUR, it's not too hard not to take it for granted. I'm well aware of how difficult it is to win a golf tournament out here.

But in terms of sustaining it, nothing really changes. All we do out here is try to get better each day. For me, that just means kind of deciding what I want to accomplish on any given day, whether that's today I want to do something with my wedges. Today I just want to see the golf course, play nine holes.

So it doesn't really change anything day to day in terms of trying to sustain it. I think I said it last week. The World Golf Rankings are based on your past play, and it doesn't get you anything going forward.

So I don't think there's any sense in trying to necessarily sustain the golf that I've played. It's just back to the same process of trying to do what I set out to do each day and try to get a little bit better.

Q. You're probably aware there's a lot of interest in the golf ball you're playing. Can you just tell us why you put this particular ball in play and how much distance you sacrificed playing a ball that apparently would be conforming to the new testing rules of 2030?

CAMERON YOUNG: I think I put it in play the same reason that everybody else plays the ball that they play. I hit it during a ball test, one of the Titleist facilities probably close to two years ago and didn't know anything about it and just kind of say, hey, what's that one? Because I liked the flight.

Then as things progressed, I was able to test it last year at Wyndham, able to put that in play, and it's been there since.

Obviously there is no conforming list. I wasn't aware that it would have -- I suppose I read something that said it passed that test, but I wasn't aware of that until very recently.

So at no point was that a consideration. It was just really me trying to optimize my golf, and it's the ball that seems to work the best for me.

Q. Compared to other balls you've tested, was there a noticeable distance loss with it?

CAMERON YOUNG: Not particularly. I don't think any of us are out really here playing the ball that goes the farthest. I think you'd struggle to find a single person that's doing that. We're all sacrificing a certain amount of things that we feel are worth it, control with irons, control with wedges. For me, that's the biggest thing is being able to control spin, and this is the ball that does the best for me.

Q. Regarding connections, the PGA of America, beyond the connection of your father, you've also got a friend in the field, representing the Corebridge Financial Team of 20 PGA professionals. Tell me about your time with Chris that you got to spend with him this week.

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, we got to play nine holes yesterday, which was nice. Haven't seen him in a couple years. Yeah, Chris Gabriel, we grew up playing some golf together up in the Northeast and went off to college.

When he came back from college, he actually worked with my father at Sleepy Hollow for a couple of years as one of his assistants.

I got to be around him a little then. He's got his own head pro job on Westbury in Long Island. I think he just started recently.

Yeah, great to see him progress through the ranks in the PGA section up there. Yeah, really excited for him. He's always been a good player, so no surprise that he qualified at some point. Yeah, just really excited for him. Looking forward to see how he does the next few years.

Q. I imagine he was picking your brain a bit out there. What were the conversations on the fairway with you two playing together in an event like this?

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, obviously it didn't feel too foreign. He's a good golfer, like I said. It was more similar to any conversation I'd have with any of the other guys out here playing. Just little things: What are you doing here? What are you thinking there?

I think he's got it pretty well handled. He drives it pretty straight. He's a pretty solid golfer. So I think he'll do just fine.

Q. Just to clarify one thing, Cam. This ball, do you hit it farther than the other one?

CAMERON YOUNG: No, I hit very similar, yeah. It's much more -- the driver is kind of the easiest thing to deal with, I feel like. For me to get it where it needed to be, I had to just add a little bit of spin, and it kind of comes out at a perfectly playable range.

For me, the biggest thing, like I said, is the irons. This ball is easier to control with the irons. It doesn't spin as much, and it just allows me to be better with my distance control just because it's more consistent.

Q. Secondly -- and sorry to bring this down a little bit, but do you have an iPhone; correct?

CAMERON YOUNG: I do.

Q. Would you estimate about how much time you spend on it per day, and maybe in minutes in your case, I don't know.

CAMERON YOUNG: It depends. If I'm on my own on the road, it's a lot more. It's probably four hours or something. And if I'm at home with my family, it's probably more on the order of half that.

I try to be conscious of it. So I know when I'm by myself, it's somewhere in the four, four-and-a-half range, and when I'm not, when I'm at home, it's usually two or under two.

Q. What are you doing on it when you're on the road on your own? Something tells me you're not looking at social media.

CAMERON YOUNG: I don't know. I go on YouTube. I like to read articles. I look at golf swing videos for more time than I'd like to admit, yeah.

Q. What operating system -- kidding. The golf course, your assessment, particularly I guess the par-3s are pretty long, but just in general what your impressions were of the golf course yesterday?

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I liked it. I feel like it's very, very classic Northeast. The grasses are very familiar. The rough is pretty thick, but I feel like it's a nice combination.

The fairways, they're not super narrow, but they are firm enough that if you hit bad shots that land in the fairway, they can get in the rough or if it's shaped incorrectly.

The greens are definitely tricky. You have to kind of know what slopes you're landing on. Especially if you don't get much rain, it's going to be a huge difference between landing on upslope or flat.

I really liked it. I haven't been before. I'm just kind of still seeing my way around a little bit. I'll play the front nine again today.

Yeah, I've really liked it so far. I think, especially if we get a dry week, it could be pretty firm by the end of the week, and that will be a lot of fun.

Q. Obviously those of us who know you a little bit know how low-key you are. I'm curious, as you have gained success winning some of these high-profile tournaments, is there any part of you that enjoys the attention? How do you kind of handle that as you go?

CAMERON YOUNG: I mean, I think it's nice for your work to be recognized. Yeah, it's kind of remarkable how much more it's recognized for winning versus coming in second. Obviously there is a huge difference kind of career-wise, but golf-wise, it's small.

Yeah, it's been nice for that to be recognized, but at the same time, I at least am trying to value the work that I put in and kind of evaluate days based on how I go about my day and not necessarily what I shot or how I finished a tournament.

So, yeah, on one hand, it's great, and I've enjoyed some of the good work that I've done to be recognized. And on the other hand, it doesn't change much. I don't want to get caught in valuing that more than what I do each day and how I feel about the work that I've put in.

Q. Are you comfortable with it?

CAMERON YOUNG: I'm pretty comfortable with it. Like I said, if I keep that mindset that it doesn't really change much and I'm really evaluating other things -- you do a press conference instead of not doing a press conference, it's a 30-minute difference in your week. It doesn't make a huge difference.

Q. On the ball, one last thing, it sounds like that information only reached you recently.

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah.

Q. I was curious if you could just detail exactly when you found out, if it surprised you, and then just the fact that you think it's negligible changed your opinion on maybe what the proposed rollback means?

CAMERON YOUNG: In terms of my opinion, it's not going to be up to us, I don't think. I think that's kind of irrelevant from my perspective. I haven't done the research or kind of dived into it enough to really understand the goal and how they're going to do it. In terms of that, I don't think there's much to say.

When I found out was -- I don't know, it was a few weeks ago. I don't remember exactly when it was, but it hasn't been long.

Yeah, I was kind of surprised in a sense, but at the same time, it didn't change that I had played well with it, and I was comfortable. I feel like I'm playing a golf ball that's best for how I'm playing the game at the moment. If that works out to mean that this goes into effect and I'm still playing the ball however many years from now makes it an easy change.

The manufacturers are so good. They're going to find their way to make a good golf ball no matter what the restrictions are. So it doesn't really concern me that much frankly.