By Jeff Mills, Special to the Wyndham Championship
GREENSBORO — First things first: No lead is safe on the Donald Ross golf course at stately Sedgefield Country Club.
The shot-making pros on the PGA TOUR can post some very low numbers here. We’ve seen final-round leads evaporate in the summer heat many times over the last 10 years as players such as Davis Love, Camilo Villegas, Jim Herman and even defending champ Aaron Rai rallied on Sunday to win the Wyndham Championship.
With that said …
The 86th edition of this golf tournament is Cameron Young’s for the taking.
Young made seven birdies and a bogey over 21 holes on a long Saturday, finishing his weather-delayed second round in the morning with a 62, then cruising through the afternoon with a 65 to get to 20-under par.
That’s 20 — two-zero — under. It’s the best 54-hole score in tournament history.
The Wyndham Championship’s scoring record at Sedgefield is 22-under, an absurdly low number shared by Henrik Stenson (2017) and J.T. Poston (2019). It’s officially in jeopardy.
Young heads into the final round with a five-shot lead over Colombia’s Nico Echavarría, who birdied four of his final seven holes to shoot an impressive 64 in his third round.
Young took command with an extraordinary stretch of golf on Sedgefield’s front nine, pulling away from the field to lead by as many as eight strokes.
“Four birdies in a row,” Young said. “No. 3 felt like a putt I should have made. No. 4 I was just trying to two-putt and it fell in the front lip. On No. 5 you feel like you should make birdie, and then No. 6 is a bonus on top of those three. I just played some really nice golf there for about an hour.”
Young, a 28-year-old Wake Forest alumnus who turned pro in 2019, is chasing his first PGA TOUR victory. He has seven runner-up finishes in 93 starts on TOUR.
“If you go back through it, I finished second a bunch, but I’ve gotten beat a lot,” Young said. “I haven’t played poorly and lost. I’ve played some good golf on Sunday in really all those cases. So that’s all I’m trying to do tomorrow. I’m starting in a nice spot, so I’m just looking to try to beat second place by as many shots as I can. That’s been my mindset from the first tee on Thursday, and that’s what I’m going to try to do tomorrow.”
If Sunday turns out to be a victory lap, Young will become the fourth Wake Forest alum to win this tournament, joining Webb Simpson (2011), Scott Hoch (2001) and Lanny Wadkins (1983).
Young would also vault from 40th to 16th in the FedEx Cup standings depending on how others play, and make a strong case to be included on the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team.
The man from Colombia chasing him started the week 65th in FedEx Cup points and could jump into the top 50 with a strong finish. The top 70 in the standings advance to golf’s playoffs, which start next week in Memphis. The top 50 after Memphis qualify for all eight of the PGA TOUR’s signature events next year.
Echavarría played 23 holes Saturday, starting his weather-delayed second round on No. 14 in a drizzling rain at 7:30 a.m.
“It was a long day,” he said. “I had to get up pretty early, but it’s the best job in the world. I was patient out there. I hit some quality shots, and I made a lot of putts. I gave myself a chance for tomorrow. I’m going to be in the final group, which is very cool.”
Echavarría has battled the mental part of his golf game, and he’s been open about the struggle this week.
“The last few weeks, I’m playing really good, but I haven’t been very kind to myself in the way I speak to myself sometimes,” he said. “We hit a bad shot, and the way we react is just awful. … I hope it lasts forever, but I’ve been kind to myself (this week) and watched what I said to myself after a bad shot.”
Echavarría has heeded the advice from his sports psychologist.
“He told me just speak to yourself the way you would speak to your best friend,” Echavarría said. “Be your own best friend.”
The Englishman Rai and Americans Chris Kirk and Mac Meissner head into the final round tied for third place at 12-under, one shot ahead of 20-year-old Jackson Koivun, who is alone in sixth place.
Koivun, the top-ranked amateur in the world, grew up in nearby Chapel Hill and is a college star at Auburn University. He’s playing the Wyndham Championship on a sponsor’s exemption, choosing it over the Western Amateur tournament this week.
“This is a great opportunity,” Koivun said after shooting 65 in his third round to climb the leaderboard. “The Western Am is an unbelievable event. I’ve played it a couple of times. It was a very tough decision, but just being so close to home, playing here made sense for me.”
The Wyndham Championship is Koivun’s sixth PGA TOUR start. He earned his TOUR card through the PGA TOUR University program, but he will return to Auburn for his junior year this fall and accept TOUR membership next year.
Koivun has hit the ball straight off the tee this week, and he has putted well. Playing with the pros has been an eye-opener for him.
“My ball-striking has been pretty good the past couple weeks, and I’m happy with that,” he said. “… I definitely need to work on those wedges and that short game. These guys are really good out here. They’re like wizards with a wedge in their hands.”
The wizards return to Sedgefield for one last day of the regular season tomorrow, one final day of big golf and bigger fun with nearly perfect weather at our region’s summer party.
