Cameron Young surged into a share of the second-round lead at the Rocket Classic in Detroit after shooting a nine-under 61 on Friday. The world No 3 climbed 68 spots to move to 10 under overall following his bogey-free round, placing him in a three-way tie with Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Fishburn.
The 29-year-old made seven birdies on his front nine and threatened to join Jim Furyk as the only players in PGA Tour history to record two career sub-60 rounds. Young enters the weekend as the tournament favourite following his runner-up finish at The Open two weeks ago.
"It felt like I had a 10-footer for birdie on pretty much every hole. I made a bunch of them in a row on my first nine," said Young. "Then the putter kind of went cold a little bit for my second nine. Just really solid golf all the way through. Happy to have kind of played my way back in the tournament a little bit after Thursday."
Recent form and performance
The two-time Open runner-up won The Players Championship and Cadillac Championship earlier this year, though he has struggled to sustain consistent results throughout the season. He reflected on the mental challenges of navigating fluctuating form during tournament play.
"You wonder am I missing something, why is this the way that it is, why is it not working, all those things. But when it goes well, it feels totally the opposite," said Young. "When it goes well, it feels like you never will play bad again. It just comes and goes. You kind of have to be ready for either one. At some point it's going to get harder and at some point you'll come out of that difficult period and it will feel easy again. It's kind of just a game of being ready for whatever comes next."
Challengers on the leaderboard
While Young shares top spot with Cantlay and Fishburn, 17 other players sit within three shots of the lead. England's Matt Wallace shot a bogey-free round of 64 to move to nine under, sharing fourth place alongside Rickie Fowler.
First-round leader Peter Malnati fell back after carding a one-over 71, but he remains just two shots off the pace at eight under. Malnati is among eight players tied for sixth position, a group that includes two-time major champion Xander Schauffele.
Elsewhere in the second round, Matt Kuchar made a hole-in-one, marking the seventh ace of his career. The shot equalled the PGA Tour record for the most holes-in-one since 2005. After making the shot, Kuchar allowed a young fan to retrieve the ball from the hole.
