[PHOTO: James Gilbert]
Considering the ease with which PGA Tour players tear up TPC River Highlands, it seemed only a matter of time before another historic round would be recorded there, and it came during the third round of the Travelers Championship.
Cameron Young got off to a scoring start by going five-under through his first four holes, and with two eagles and seven birdies, the 27-year-old New Yorker shot 11-under-par 59 on the par-70 track, becoming the 12th player to card a sub-60 round in tour history. Young’s round was highlighted by a spectacular eagle at the driveable, par-4 15th, where from 256 metres he drove the green and ended up four feet from the cup for an eagle 2.
After a five-and-a-half-foot birdie putt at 17, Young had a chance to match Jim Furyk’s 58 that he shot at River Highlands in the 2016 Travelers, but his drive found the left rough, and Young ended up with a nine-foot, seven-inch putt for par and the 13th 59 overall on tour.
“I didn’t think about it too much kind of the middle that have back nine… all of a sudden like everything was going in after kind of 10, 11, 12,” Young said. “Yeah, then it kind of, all of a sudden, I had a putt for 59 on 18, which was a blast.
“The past two days have been great,” Young added later. “I played some really nice golf. I think like in terms of lifetime achievement, there’s definitely some things that go before it for me. It’s one day, it’s one day that you shot a million under. It’s very cool and I’m thankful that my name is on that very short list, but there’s whole tournaments that I’ve played that… I probably would still put above it.”
Only two courses in tour history have surrendered more than one sub-60 round – River Highlands and the Old White TPC (59s by Stuart Appleby and Kevin Chappell). It’s the first sub-60s score on tour since Scottie Scheffler shot 59 at TPC Boston in 2020.
The 59 vaulted Young, who opened 72-66, up 42 spots on the leaderboard and into a tie for first at 13-under. That was not going to come close to standing by the end of the round, however.
With birdies on holes eight and nine, Young shot 28 on the front nine, but then made one birdie over the next five. But he got back on track with the eagle at 15 and birdie at 17.
Sub-60 rounds in PGA Tour history
58 – Jim Furyk, final round, 2016 Travelers Championship
59 – Al Geiberger, second round, 1977 Memphis Classic
59 – Chip Beck, third round 1991 Las Vegas Invitational
59 – David Duval, final round, 1999 Bob Hope Invitational
59 – Paul Goydos, first round, 2010 John Deere Classic
59 – Stuart Appleby, final round, 2010 Greenbrier Classic
59 – Jim Furyk, second round, BMW Championship
59 – Justin Thomas, first round, 2017 Sony Open
59 – Adam Hadwin, third round, 2017 CareerBuilder Challenge
59 – Brandt Snedeker, first round, 2018 Wyndham Championship
59 – Kevin Chappell, second round, 2019 Military Tribute at Greenbrier
59 – Scottie Scheffler, second round, 2020 The Northern Trust
59 – Cameron Young, third round, 2024 Travelers Championship
