Smylie Kaufman has suggested whether he thinks Rory McIlroy would have had a chance of beating Cameron Young if he had been in the field for the Cadillac Championship this past week.
Young produced a stunning performance at Doral to secure his second victory of the season. The 28-year-old opened up a five-shot lead by the halfway stage and barely looked back.
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Ultimately, the American finished six shots ahead of Scottie Scheffler to move back into third place in the world rankings. It was also his third PGA Tour victory.
There is a debate to be had about whether Young is the best golfer in the world right now. Of course, we have not seen Rory McIlroy in competitive action since the Northern Irishman won his second Masters title last month.
Whether Rory McIlroy would have had a chance against Cameron Young at the Cadillac Championship
McIlroy triumphed at Augusta National despite not having his A game. And Doral would have been a great fit for the 37-year-old given how important distance was.
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However, Smylie Kaufman is not at all convinced that anyone would have been able to stop Young getting across the line on the Blue Monster.
Speaking on The Smylie Show about whether Young’s victory highlighted a problem with smaller field sizes, Kaufman insisted all that having all of the best players playing would have done is create just a little more drama.
Photo by Logan Whitton/Augusta National/Getty Images
“I think 120 was always the best number when it comes to competitors playing in their big events. It flowed the best as a player. And you got enough guys in to where you maybe would have a couple more guys who would have an opportunity to chase,” he said.
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“But the way that Cam Young and Scottie and these guys are playing, it would have been tough, of course, to see any of the extra 40 players that you could have added would have potentially taken down Cameron Young. No one was beating Cam Young this week, and that’s just the bottom line.
“But where you could point to the bigger issue is that you need all the guys to play that are at the top, the Rory McIlroys, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick, Robert MacIntyre, the list goes on of players who were not there. Now those guys could have made a difference.
“Would they have beaten Cam Young again? No, no one was beating Cam, but that’s where my head’s at there.”
Smylie Kaufman left amazed by Cameron Young’s performance at Doral
It was a real statement from Young, particularly as he was alongside Scottie Scheffler for three of the four days.
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It is the second time that he has won by six shots, with his maiden victory at the Wyndham Championship coming by the same margin.
Obviously, Young needs to take that quality into the majors. That is what will put him alongside the best two players in the world right now.
But Kaufman clearly thinks that he has all of the tools to win one of the game’s four biggest prizes.
“19 under par is ridiculous. This golf course is 7,700 yards, the second longest on the PGA Tour, with water that’s in play on 13 of the 18 holes. And I’m looking at his stats, and of course, Cameron Young has so many weapons,” he said.
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“He’s an elite driver of the golf ball. He hits it long and straight, and his iron game has improved tremendously since making the golf ball change at Wyndham this past year. He went on to win that first PGA Tour event. The putter, this is something that we talked about with him on the podcast, he’s tremendously improved in that statistic. But the stats this week, I’m blown away by some of these numbers.
“When you have greens that are big, like the ones at Doral, you’re going to hit a couple more greens in regulation, but you’re also going to have more of those putts outside of 10 feet. So you’d love to make a couple a day if possible to shoot a low score, but a lot of guys weren’t making many putts outside of 10 feet. But Cam Young, from 10 to 15 feet this week, he was five from nine. From 15 to 20 feet, he was also five from nine. So this guy was making more than 50 per cent of the putts in that 10 to 20 feet range. This is how not only do you win golf tournaments, that’s how you blow fields away.”
Many will certainly be tipping Young to contend at the PGA Championship later this month. He appears to have absolutely everything in his game to be the man to beat at Aronimink.
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