Cameron Young tapped for par and left the eighth green, ready to put a birdie on his partner’s scorecard. Scottie Scheffler was 3 feet short of tying Young at 4 under, but the world No. 1 instead brushed aside his attempt, and only then did the two begin to go in opposite directions.
Young continued to add circles to his scorecard, opening with a bogey-free 8-under 64 at Trump National Doral to take the lead in the first round. Scheffler, on the other hand, struggled the rest of the way, posting a 71, seven strokes worse than the man with whom he shared a tee time on Thursday.
“I always feel like that’s a possibility. If you had asked me to guess, I probably wouldn’t have guessed 64,” Young said of his low score. “But to be honest, that’s not what I was worried about. Three weeks is a long time, so you’re going to have good days and you’re going to have bad days. So it was important for us to come out here today and experience what we’re going to do and see what we’re going to get because that’s how you approach some of these longer periods.”
In Friday’s second round, both Jordan Spieth and Alex Smalley took advantage of the friendlier-than-scary Blue Monster, with Young holding a one-stroke lead and averaging under par for the first round. A lack of wind until the end of the first round and vulnerable greens created opportunities for low scores as players braved the formidable course.
But not everyone was as lucky as Young and Spieth. Genesis Invitational winner Jacob Bridgman dropped to the bottom of the leaderboard with a first-round 79 as major champion Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose, Adam Scott and Jason Day all shot over par.
“(The wind) was kind of moving around. When we started it was to the west and now it’s southeast, so we had to pay attention to what the wind was doing and try to commit to that situation,” Spieth said. “The green is big, but the pin area is very small.
“So if I had a good number, it was an attack, and if I didn’t, it was just play to 20 feet and go from there. I hit a few putts off the fringe, but that was a bonus and I just really played the right way the rest of the round. So I was able to keep the ball in front of me, and that’s going to be key over the next three days.”
leader
1. Cameron Young (-8): In Young’s first round, he had eight birdies and 10 pars, hitting par breakers from tap-in range or long range. The Players Championship winner’s wedge play was spectacular in his first salvo, where he flicked darts into the pins at Nos. 2, 5 and 16. His other birdies came thanks to a make from 45 feet on the par-4 third and lucky putts from off the green on the seventh and 15th.
What made this performance even more impressive was that Young performed by his standards without hitting the ball. He only hit half of the fairway, and sometimes struggled with hard left-handed mistakes, but he overcame them and put together a round for the day. If he tightens up the club a bit and maintains this sharpness with his wedge, Young might not give up too much to his pursuers.
“Most of the time, it’s right in front of you,” Young said. “Most of the tee shots are obvious. A good course gives you that. I don’t think they try to hide anything. So learning the course wasn’t a big deal. Well, I drove well today. It should suit me very well. And thankfully, (I) had a really good day around the greens. I hit a few off the fringe and made some really good putts.”
contestant
T2. Jordan Spieth, Alex Smalley (-7)
4. Nick Taylor (-6)
5. Nico Echavarria (-5)
T6. Andrew Putnam, Brian Harman, Gary Woodland (-4)
Now, could you please take a look at that? Spieth was on a roll Thursday thanks to his usual antics — including a chip-in for eagle on the par-5 eighth — but there were also some other positive signs in his game. The three-time major champion handled a difficult quartet of par-3s at Doral and played 2 under with no stress to speak of. There were some slow swings, but overall it was one of Spieth’s best performances to date.
According to Spieth, working on the game was one reason for his performance, but what he was gaming on was just as important. The 13-time PGA Tour winner said he switched to the Pro V1-X left dash. He said he was looking for balls with increased spin and lower spin, but that’s not all, Spieth had some new material in the bag in the form of a new driver and 3-wood. On Thursday, it seemed like the right decision.
“I felt like there were some tournaments this year where I got off to a good start early on the front nine of the first round and then either played a difficult golf course or just didn’t hold up at all. So today I went to Michael during the day and said, ‘ I remember saying, ‘Let’s pretend we’re going to start over to stay aggressive,’ like look at the holes where you can get a birdie and how difficult the holes are, if that makes sense.
“So it was a good strategy. You don’t expect to be 7 under every day, but when the wind was light at the start, it was a good time to take advantage of it. And the greens were soft enough that if you controlled the ball off the tee, it wasn’t fast enough to get some attention.”
Rose’s race begins with a crash
Equipment changes are always a conversation starter, especially when the changes are to the car manufacturer. Rose transitioned to new McLaren irons ahead of this week’s tournament, but suffered an abysmal performance in the opening round. On his first hole, he missed the green with a wedge in hand, but hit his fourth into the penalty area and made a good exit through the par 5 to drop a pair.
The Brit steadied the ship over the next few holes, but caught water again on the par-5 eighth and suffered yet another double bogey. He never fully recovered. In one day of hitting the ball in 2026, he lost strokes on 13 of his 18 total approach shots.
Updated 2026 Cadillac Championship odds and picks
Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook
- Cameron Young: +160
- Jordan Spieth: 6-1
- Scotty Scheffler: 8-1
- Alex Smalley: 10-1
- Nick Taylor: 20-1
- Gary Woodland: 28-1
If Young drives better and takes care of the par 5s, he could be a strange asset in this tournament on Friday, but I’d instead like to see Scheffler make a late surge on Friday. The world No. 1 player missed several chances to turn in 3 under, but then the wheels came off. He plays par 5s at 1 over, leaving a lot of chances and playing much better than his 1 under rounds. It’s almost triple the pre-tournament price, so let’s roll the dice.
