It was Cameron Young’s turn to fire a 9-under-par 61 at the Rocket Classic.
The World No. 3 ended Friday tied with Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Fishburn for the lead in the Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club.
After Peter Malnati kicked off the tournament with a 61 on Thursday, Young began the second round eight shots off the pace. But his back-nine 28 (seven birdies, two pars) propelled him to a low score and helped him reach 10-under 130 at the halfway mark.
Young tied the tournament’ single-round scoring record set by Jake Knapp last year and matched by Malnati on Thursday.
“It felt like I had a 10-footer for birdie on pretty much every hole,” Young said. “Yeah, I made a bunch of them in a row on the … the back nine, my first nine. Then the putter kind of went cold a little bit for my second nine. Just really solid golf all the way through.”
To his point, Young began on the back nine and birdied six in a row at Nos. 12-17. While he kicked off that stretch with a 27-foot birdie, no other putt he sank was longer than 14 feet. He cooled off from there, making just two birdies on the front nine.
Cantlay and Fishburn each shot 66 after firing 64 in the first round. The leading trio are one stroke ahead of Rickie Fowler (second-round 68) and Englishman Matt Wallace (64).
Young, who has already won The Players Championship and the Cadillac Championship this year, is No. 3 in the FedEx Cup points race angling for even better position to start the playoffs in two weeks. Cantlay also could make a significant move in the standings, as he entered the week No. 43 and is projected to jump to No. 21 if results hold.
“I think you just have to stay patient and keep working on the fundamentals in your game,” said Cantlay, who hasn’t won since the 2022 BMW Championship. “Like I said, wins can happen fast. You can get on a run and start playing well. So, I think you’ve got to believe that that’s right around the corner. With the momentum I feel like I’ve been having in my game the last few months, it wouldn’t surprise me.”
Fishburn, meanwhile, is making a last-minute push to crack the top 70 that will qualify for the first leg of the playoffs. The 34-year-old journeyman, who has made seven cuts in his last eight starts after a cold start to the year, is 145th in points for now but is projected to jump to 61st.
“I’m pretty far down on the list. I’ve got a long ways to go to get where I need to,” Fishburn said. “But it’s good. Still a lot of events left for me to play in, but just the daily process of doing what I need to to get better.”
Fowler won this event in 2023 and is searching for his first victory since. He recovered from three bogeys on the back nine by birdieing No. 18.
“Bogeys are going to happen,” Fowler said. “I mean, one three-putt and then two spots where I got out of position off the tee. One was off the tee and one was coming into the green there on 17 … Nice to finish with birdie on 18. A lot of good stuff today and nice to be in a good spot for the weekend.”
Malnati struggled to a 1-over 71 and slipped to 8 under. He is tied for sixth with Davis Riley (second-round 64), Xander Schauffele (66), Michael Brennan (67), Michael Kim (67), Chris Kirk (67), Doug Ghim (67) and Ryan Gerard (69).
The cut line wound up at 3 under par. Notables who missed the cut included Knapp (2 under), Ben Griffin (2 under), Akshay Bhatia (1 under), Chris Gotterup (1 over), Webb Simpson (2 over), defending champion Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa (3 over) and U.S. Open champ Wyndham Clark (5 over).
–Field Level Media
