Cameron Young and Sahith Theegala are arguably No. 1 and No. 2 in the Rookie of the Year race on the PGA Tour this season.
This weekend’s 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic looks like it will play a significant role in determining that.
Young fired a 9-under 63 on Friday morning, tying the tournament course record, and walked off the ninth green (his 18th hole) with a one stroke lead at 10-under 134.
The man behind him, Theegala, carded a 5-under 67, and sits one stroke back at 9-under 135.
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“The hole-out on No. 13 is really nice and sometimes it’s hard to follow that up, but I did with a birdie on 14 and 16, so kind of about then,” Young said of when he knew Friday had the chance to be special. “I knew it was going to be getable this morning we played in a good bit of wind yesterday, but today was calm.
“So I’d say middle of my front nine, the (course’s) back things started feeling a little easier.”
After a birdie on No. 12, Young found the middle of the fairway on the par-4 No. 13. With 136 yards remaining, he grabbed pitching wedge and said he aimed four steps long, approximately 140 yards, and a few steps left.
“So I missed it just short right,” he said with a smile, “and it happened to fly directly in the hole.”
Slam DUNK.
Cameron Young flys it in from 135 yards 👏 pic.twitter.com/8RBn1A9ZDN
From there, Young continued to put himself in good positions and when he walked off the course, led the field in strokes gained off the tee by nearly four shots after finding 22 of 28 fairways through two days.
Young said driving is his greatest strength — his stats show he is second on Tour in strokes gained off the tee this season.
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He has put it all together thus far, ranking top 20 in strokes gained on the green and converting 9 of 10 scrambling attempts when he has missed the green through 36 holes.
“I think yesterday I putted okay I just didn’t make much, but I wasn’t in as good of spots around the green,” he said. “The ones I missed today, I really was in a bunch of places that were very doable.
“So I think that’s kind of a place where the stats don’t tell the whole story.”
Not everything went perfectly for the Open Championship’s runner-up at St. Andrews two weeks ago.
His drive on No. 2 went wayward left, hit a cart path, and rolled to about 408 yards. He took relief and dropped behind the cart path, chipped through the trees and it bounded across the green just off the fringe into the first cut.
He managed to get up and down, knocking in a putt from just inside seven feet which, “really kept the round going.”
He ripped off birdies on four of the next five holes, and after missing a chance for another putt on No. 8, he needed par for the course record.
His tee shot on the 200-yard par 3 ninth landed 35 feet away, his first putt still left him with seven feet, but he managed to save a par to card a clean round and tie Nate Lashley (first and third round in 2019), J.T. Poston (second round in 2019) and Davis Thompson (first round in 2021) for the best round in tournament history.
“Cam Young is by far the front-runner in my opinion (for Rookie of the Year),” Theegala said. “He’s more deserving right now. If I happen to have a great couple weeks here and in the playoffs, that might change.
“But Cam, again, 9-under today, he’s such a talent and I think he’s deserving of that.”
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Early, Theegala looked as if he may have a similar type of round to Young, which he said started from the momentum he got as he closed his round Thursday.
At the end of that round, he hit driver off the deck on the par-5 No. 17, much to the chagrin of his caddy Carl Smith, and crossed it into a bunker 60 yards out — though he did make par.
Then, the duo got the wrong number on No. 18 and airmailed the green by 20 yards. Still, he was able to chip on and sink a 10-footer to save par and wrap up the round with a 68.
“That was big,” he said. “I knew this morning would be a green light special. I mean the course is too pure right now, if you hit the fairway — I mean it still penalizes you in the rough — but if you hit the fairways, it feels like every hole can be a birdie hole.”
Early on, they were all birdie holes.
Theegala, starting on the back nine, made five birdies in a six-hole span between Nos. 13-18, the lone par coming on the 145-yard par-3 15th.
After giving one back on No. 5, he got another circle on the card on No. 8 to wrap up his 67.
Theegala said he played much better Thursday, especially given the windy conditions. He struck the ball better, which he has done well all season, but on Friday thought he left shots out there tee to green.
But where he’s happiest with his game is on the greens.
Theegala gained 1.653 strokes with the flatstick Friday, which ranked 10th when he left the course, after his 2.849 strokes gained on the green Thursday was 8th.
“I can count on my right hand how many good putting weeks I’ve had this year,” he said. “But yeah, that’s golf in a nutshell. I was texting a buddy yesterday saying how it seems like it’s just impossible to get every part of your game clicking at the same time.
“But it seems like the great players, the top-10 players find a way to do that on certain weeks and that’s when they win.”
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Two of the tournament’s bigger names, Will Zalatoris and Max Homa, will be around for the weekend.
Zalatoris, the second-highest ranked player in the field this week at No. 13 in the world, shot a 1-under 71 on Friday, putting him at 3-under for the tournament. Homa, ranked 20th in the world, bounced back from a 72 on Thursday, to shoot a 4-under 68.
As the afternoon wave wrapped up, 3-under stayed the projected cut line, meaning both will make the weekend. The top-65 players and ties make the cut.
Zalatoris, runner-up at both the PGA Championship and U.S. Open this season, bogeyed his first two holes, Nos. 10 and 11, but picked up a shot at the par-5 14th, and stuck a beautiful approach from 142 yards to 3½ feet at the difficult 18th green, and sunk the birdie. He bogeyed No. 4, but birdies at Nos. 5 and 7 put him in red numbers for the day.
Homa, after bogeying Nos. 12 and 16, birdied Nos. 18, 1, 5 and 7. His final tee shot into the par-3 ninth green from 200 yards landed inside five feet, and he drained the crucial birdie putt to push him safely into the weekend.
Contact Tony Garcia at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter at @realtonygarcia.
