ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL

March 2, 2023

Cameron Young

Bay Hill Club and Lodge

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you characterize your round today?

CAMERON YOUNG: I think I scored really nicely. I felt like I wasn't on the green that much. I don't know how many I hit. It couldn't have been more than 11 or 12. I feel like I took advantage of my opportunities. I took advantage of the par-5s.

I don't think it was quite as solid and it wasn't like I just hit it perfect all day, but I think I scored really nicely and putted well and just took advantage of the opportunities I had.

Q. Do you take hitting it mediocre and scoring nicely over hitting it great?

CAMERON YOUNG: Oh, yeah. It's so frustrating hitting it great and missing everything. I think I was really happy with the way I put a round together today. I hit a bunch of good shots as well, but I was definitely in so some tricky places and made the best of what I had. Any time you break par out here you're doing okay. Today I just feel like every time I had a chance to make birdie I did.

Q. You just wish you had more chances?

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, obviously I would love some more chances. But I think I did a great job of making it work from some mediocre spots and taking advantage of those birdie opportunities.

Q. On the times that you used to come down to Orlando did you ever spend much time here?

CAMERON YOUNG: I played here probably maybe every other year for the bunch of years we were down here as a kid, because we lived just across the way at Orange Tree for awhile in the winter.

So I was familiar with it. Obviously, that's, at this point, 10 years ago. The golf course is -- in tournament shape I think is a different animal, when the rough gets like this and the green gets firm. So it's still learning every time you come here.

Q. (No Microphone.)

CAMERON YOUNG: I don't think so, no. It's not easy as it is, and I wasn't quite as good then.

Q. The 9th hole is tripping a lot of guys up --

CAMERON YOUNG: That's because it's 500 yards into the wind.

Q. Yeah, what's the deal? What's going on on that hole?

CAMERON YOUNG: It's 500 yards into the wind with the narrow fairway and four-and-a-half-inch rough. It's just a really hard hole. It's not complicated. It's just a brutal hole.

Q. I just noticed all the leaders kind of stumbled there.

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah. It's just basically a par-5.

Q. What was your best par save today?

CAMERON YOUNG: Probably on 1. I hit an awful 2-iron off the tee, just so far right, and then kind of just caught a big flier. I had kind of a nice lie in the rough and didn't know what to expect and it just came out really hot. So ended up in that back bunker, which is an okay spot to be.

And I hit a nice shot and I had, I don't know, probably it was 8 or 9 feet. Nice after playing the back nine, my first nine in 5-under, to kind of keep it going with a par there.

Q. What was the eagle?

CAMERON YOUNG: Eagle was, I chipped in just short of the 12th hole. Actually, a really good second shot. I had a number where I didn't think I could stop it on the green if I flew it on and kind of decided that the best place to be was going to be right around that front fringe if I could get it there. So I kind of purposely left it just short. I was trying to get it just on the green. But where it ended up was as good as I could ask for. It's a really hard shot to that front left hole location. Where I left it was a really nice spot to be in. Obviously fortunate that it goes in, but I hit a nice pitch and it was going very softly, so it was going to be tap-in 4 if I missed. I hit 4-iron. I think it was 237 to the flag.

Q. You're going to have days when the ball striking is not perfect. When you still work and produce the score, what's the inner satisfaction of that?

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah. I think it, I feel like I've improved my putting recently. I feel like I'm just getting a little bit better at that, committing to some simple things. I think today was a really encouraging step as far as that goes. I made a good few 8-, 10-footers, even some 4- and 5-footers that I have struggled with I feel like a little bit.

I was much more confident and comfortable over a lot of those today. I feel like that's kind of -- it's something that takes some pressure off and just puts me in a better mood out there knowing that I can make a stroke at those. I feel like I made a bunch that I've been kind of missing, which was a nice feeling.

Q. Is this a course that suits your eye? If so, why?

CAMERON YOUNG: Mainly, yes. There's definitely a couple uncomfortable shots out there. Like 15, for example, is kind of just a little bit of an awkward one.

Q. The tee shot?

CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, the tee shot.

But there's a couple -- like some of the ones that I kind of like, like 3, even 6 is like, there's a huge lake obviously out there, but it just kind of suits my eye. I can carry a lot of the water. So there's, I would say the vast majority of holes out there are I think nice looking to me.

Q. Do you think if you're a -- I'm not speaking to you specific here, but if you're an ordinary putter as a junior and always have been, can you become a great putter or can you only become a very good putter? In other words --

CAMERON YOUNG: I don't know. I think there's a lot of it that you can learn. I think some people have a specific talent for putting. But I think you can learn a lot of it.

Q. You mentioned working on putting. What exactly did you do?

CAMERON YOUNG: Just some simple green reading drills, a little bit of practice there. Just committing to some simple mechanical things, knowing that, as simple as keeping my head down. I'm just out there trying not to look where it goes because that just kind of cleans up some of the stuff in my stroke and generally it gets me starting it on a better line.

So just something as simple as like not watching 'em go in or not watching 'em miss, just try to hit the putt.

Q. Have you ever done that out there?

CAMERON YOUNG: On the course? Yeah, there were a couple today that I didn't see go in or didn't see miss. So that's more on the 6-, 8-, 10-footers where you don't have to sit there for five minutes waiting for it to get there.

Yeah, there were a couple that I did really well on that today and some of the putts that I hit mediocre that tends to be what I do is I kind of want to look and see what it does before I'm done hitting the putt, really.

Q. How different did it feel when all of a sudden you got into some no-cut events last year?

CAMERON YOUNG: I don't even know which ones that would have been. Like Match Play and then BMW and East Lake? I think it's different. The way I look at it, it gives you two more days to make a move, even if you're kind of out of it. I think pretty much anybody out here believes that at any point they could go shoot 10-under, 10-under and go from last place to 4th or whatever it might be. So it kind of, kind of that deal, that tournament at East Lake and BMW last year I felt like even if I was having kind of a mediocre tournament there was always a chance that I got on a stretch of 18 holes somewhere in those last two rounds that put me right back up there. Obviously both those tournaments I didn't do that, but I think that's kind of what it is to me, it's just more opportunity to climb your way back near the top of the leaderboard.