Justin Rose blooms all week at Colonial

TRUCKEE, Calif. – Preston Stanley led the way at the Barracuda Championship’s Monday qualifier, carding 7-under 65 at Hidden Valley CC in Reno, Nevada to earn one of four available spots in this week’s PGA TOUR/DP World Tour co-sanctioned field. This will mark Stanley’s second TOUR start in three weeks; he also Monday qualified into the John Deere Classic, made the cut and finished T51. Justin Warren was one of three players at 6-under 66 earning tee times this week at Tahoe Mountain Club (Old Greenwood), making amends for a missed 1-foot putt in a playoff at last year’s Barracuda Championship qualifier. He was joined at 6-under by Chris Naegel and Josh McCarthy. Three players came one stroke short at 5-under 67 – David Gazzolo, Jeffrey Kang and Zach Smith. In all, 54 players competed for four spots in this week’s field in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Click here for all scores from the Barracuda Championship’s Monday qualifier. Here’s a closer look at the four players who successfully advanced into the Barracuda Championship … Preston Stanley (7-under 65) Age: 29 Hometown: Katy, Texas Alma mater: Houston Baptist PGA TOUR starts: 1 Cuts made: 1 Best PGA TOUR finish: T51, 2022 John Deere Classic Notes: After spanning approximately seven years as a pro before earning his first TOUR start via the John Deere Classic Monday qualifier two weeks back, he has done it again with a six-birdie, two-eagle effort Monday to offset three bogeys … Holds conditional Korn Ferry Tour status this season after finishing T119 at Final Stage of Q-School but has yet to make a start. Finished T36 at the 2021 Chitimacha Louisiana Open in his only Korn Ferry Tour appearance to date … Wife Caitlyn won the 2020 and 2021 Greater Houston Women’s City Amateur Championship. The two met on a junior golf team from Houston that traveled to Scotland. They both played collegiate golf at Houston Baptist … He spent five years working part-time at Pine Forest CC in Houston … Blew a tire on his car in the week between the John Deere Classic and Barracuda Championship but has persevered. Chris Naegel (6-under 66) Age: 39 Hometown: Wildwood, Missouri Alma mater: Missouri Baptist PGA TOUR starts: 6 Cuts made: 4 Best PGA TOUR finish: T16, 2022 John Deere Classic Notes: Carded seven birdies against a bogey on Monday … Finding form this summer after earning a U.S. Open spot via Final Qualifying – then finishing T56 at Brookline – and also gaining John Deere Classic entry via Monday qualifying, proceeding to a notch a TOUR-best T16. He stood T6 into the final round at TPC Deere Run before closing with a 2-over 73 … Currently holds 52 non-member FedExCup points as he chases the equivalent of a season-ending top-200 position that would secure Korn Ferry Tour Finals entry; the No. 200 spot currently holds 79 points … Best TOUR-sanctioned finish is a solo fourth at the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2019 WinCo Foods Portland Open, including a hole-in-one during the final round … Was a frequent travel buddy of TOUR winner Adam Long, a fellow St. Louis-area native, during their formative years in professional golf. Justin Warren (6-under 66) Age: 26 Hometown: Camden, New South Wales, Australia Alma mater: Arkansas – Little Rock PGA TOUR starts: 0 Notes: Made nine birdies against three bogeys Monday … Holds conditional Korn Ferry Tour status this season but has yet to make a start; finished 148th at Final Stage of Q-School last fall … Began his college career at South Mountain Community College in Arizona, winning the 2016 individual national title at the NJCAA Division II level and helping South Mountain to the team title … Played his final two collegiate seasons at Arkansas-Little Rock before turning pro in 2019 … Grandfather Barry Warren defeated Bruce Devlin in the final of the 1957 Australian Amateur … Gained respect for his handling of a distressing situation at last year’s Barracuda Championship qualifier; he missed a 4-footer on the final hole that would have allowed him to qualify outright, then missed a 1-footer on the first playoff hole that awarded Mark Baldwin the final spot. Interestingly, Baldwin is also competing this week on a sponsor exemption. Josh McCarthy (6-under 66) Age: 25 Hometown: Danville, California Alma mater: Pepperdine PGA TOUR starts: 1 Cuts made: 0 Notes: Made seven birdies against one bogey Monday to earn his spot in the field … College teammates at Pepperdine included TOUR pro Sahith Theegala and Korn Ferry Tour pro Clay Feagler … Was part of Pepperdine’s national championship-winning squad in 2021 … Hails from less than three hours from this week’s host venue … Made his TOUR debut at last fall’s Fortinet Championship … Shortly after completing his college career, Monday qualified into Korn Ferry Tour’s 2021 Live and Work in Maine Open and finished T18 … Lists “The Greatest Game Ever Played” as his favorite movie, a biographical sports drama based on the early life of Francis Ouimet and his win at the 1913 U.S. Open at The Country Club.

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Quick 9: Why PGA Tour’s Asian swing is gaining momentum

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RIDGELAND, S.C. – Cameron Young now has a trophy to hold as a reward for his impressive debut campaign on the PGA TOUR. Young, a five-time runner-up last season, received the Arnold Palmer Award on Wednesday as the 2022 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year. Both Young and Palmer were Wake Forest alums, and another former Demon Deacon, Webb Simpson, delivered the trophy to Young, as did Sungjae Im, the 2019 Palmer Award winner. Simpson and Im playfully stepped through a side entrance in the media center and interrupted the start to Young’s pre-tournament press conference at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina to deliver the news. With his parents watching from the back of the room, Young sat in his chair and grinned, never before so thrilled to be interrupted. Young follows his former Wake Forest roommate, Will Zalatoris, in winning the award. It is the first time players from the same school have won the top rookie award back-to-back. “Well, it’s very special,” said Young, who had a pair of third-place performances (including the PGA Championship) to go with his five runner-up showings, which included a solo second at the Open Championship. Young finished 18th in the final FedExCup standings. “I know the namesake Arnold Palmer obviously was a giant in the game of golf and we have him to thank for a lot of what we do today, what the PGA TOUR is,” he said. “To be related to that in some small way is very cool. I know we had a very strong rookie class and I know it’s voted by my peers, so it’s a huge honor to be thought of in that way, just to kind of finish the year that way.” Young said his season’s proudest moment was finishing second at the 150th Open Championship at storied St. Andrews. He drove the green and eagled the 72nd hole to shoot 65 on Sunday – including a blistering back nine of 31 – but still got clipped by another Cameron, Australia’s Cameron Smith. “They love golf over there,” Young said. “And to walk into kind of the town center to play the 18th hole at St. Andrews is different than anything you find anywhere else. So just knowing the history there, and to play well that week, was very cool.” It was a trip to Scotland and St. Andrews a decade earlier that had sparked Young’s love for the game. At that point, young Cameron, 13, was more into hockey and baseball than golf. But he and his parents – his father, David Young, who recently retired after a 21-year run as head professional at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in New York, and mother, Barb Jones, an avid golfer – visited North Berwick, Gullane, Crail and St. Andrews. It rained for four days. David has pictures of Cam, cold and wet, wearing his father’s rain jacket, which went to his knees. “I’m thinking, after this trip, this kid is never going to want to play golf again,” David said last spring at the PGA Championship. “But it did just the opposite. It got him excited about it. … He decided that golf was going to be his main sport, and he started working hard at it.” Young finished second in Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee in the 2022 season, third in driving distance (319.3 yards) and was sixth in birdie average. In addition to finishing solo second at the Open, Young tied for second at the Sanderson Farms Championship, Genesis Invitational, Wells Fargo Championship and Rocket Mortgage Classic. He finished the season on the winning U.S. Team at the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow. There is a lot for him to build upon moving forward. David Young, his son’s only teacher, said Wednesday there were two keys to his son’s successful season. For one, he improved his driving, adding more accuracy to his prodigious length; and secondly, he tightened up his short game, spending more time on chipping and putting. David traces that to the 2021 RSM Classic, where it was windy and it was tough to hit greens. Young watched his fellow competitors chipping to tap-in range while he would leave himself 5- and 6-footers for par. “It kind of made an impression on us that we need to put a little more time into that,” David said. “It paid some dividends.” Scottie Scheffler, now World No. 1, was the TOUR’s Rookie of the Year in 2020 without winning a tournament, and now he’s a four-time winner and major champion. He thinks big things are ahead for Young. “I’m sure you’ll see him have a breakout year and win a couple of times, be on the top of some leaderboards again,” Scheffler said Wednesday. “He hits it hard, he’s very confident. “With the way he drives the ball, there is no course on TOUR that he can’t compete on. He hits it as far as anybody and hits it as solid as anybody. He’s one of those guys when you see him with a hot putter one week, he’s going to be right there at the top of the leaderboard.” Young’s first PGA TOUR victory doesn’t feel far away. On Wednesday, he still got to lift a trophy, a well-deserved reward for an impressive season.

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