THE MODERATOR: Cam, welcome back to the interview room here. What does it feel like to have shot your best round ever at Augusta National?
CAMERON YOUNG: It feels pretty good. It's a place that I love. I've been fortunate enough to play, this is my fifth Masters, and every time I come back it's a special place to be. A Saturday 65 is not something I can complain about.
THE MODERATOR: I hope not. You look in good shape.
Q. I'm just curious if you can put into perspective kind of your growth from the Wyndham win to now, with the way you played at Bethpage and with last month at THE PLAYERS and kind of where you're at now confidence-wise?
CAMERON YOUNG: I think it's been a slow climb. The hardest thing to do, I think, is develop some confidence when things aren't going great. Through the middle of last year I was able to take some positives out of some average results and out of some close calls.
I think back to the Canadian Open, had a chance to win and made bogey on the last, hitting as good of a shot as I could have. There's a few instances like that where I feel that I was able to take some confidence from results that weren't necessarily what I wanted.
Then the results started to turn around, won Wyndham and played well at the Ryder Cup, and things have kind of snowballed a little bit from there.
So it started with some really small things, and now I feel just much more comfortable, I would say, than before. It's hard to say exactly what it is, but I feel like it's just been very small things over the course of the last year or so that have just built up some steam. I feel very comfortable with my game.
Q. As a follow-up, what's your philosophy or your mindset on looking ahead to what might be tomorrow? Obviously it would be the greatest victory of your life.
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I'll probably give myself some time to think about it right now for the next 30 minutes or so. After that, it's kind of a battle of managing how you want to react to those things. To me, it's just a matter of going right back to how am I going to run my day tomorrow, what time am I going to get here, so I can eat, so I can go see the physio?
It's just going to be back to my routine, and that's what I'm going to lean on tomorrow.
Q. I won't ask you what church you're going to tomorrow, but do you have a mass time in mind? And if you're going to be in the final group or the penultimate group, do you think it's going to be difficult to go undetected tomorrow in church?
CAMERON YOUNG: It might, but it's not going to stop us, I think. I don't know where we're going to go yet, but we'll find somewhere and take the kids. We'll be out in full force just like usual.
Q. Were you feeling the love out there kind of down the stretch, and do you think there's a chance tomorrow that, even though Rory won last year, that you might be the fan favorite here?
CAMERON YOUNG: I don't get the sense I'll be the fan favorite, but yeah, I feel like the support, some fans that cheer for me have gotten louder over the last year. It will still be lopsided, I think. Rory's kind of a world favorite in the golf world.
A year ago, if I'd been in the same situation, there would have been very little, and now there's probably a little more. So I'll take what I can get, and I'll be happy with that.
Q. I wondered if you could shed light on your mentality during that stretch, 5, 6, 7, on Thursday with three straight bogeys and how you kind of kept yourself in it and if there was potentially a spark after that during the first round.
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, it's hard to say, this place is difficult. I really didn't hit many bad shots through that stretch. It just is very tricky. If your judgment's a little off, your execution is a little off. Never mind if they're kind of off in the same direction, you can get in some tricky spots.
Really that's all that happened. I didn't hit any terrible shots through that stretch and just kind of missed an 8-footer for par a few times in a row.
Physically, mentally, nothing really different, just you're going to make some bogeys at some point, and a lot of mine happened to come in those first seven holes.
Q. 16 of 18 greens today. What was working with your ball striking, and then also kind of how, when you're hitting it that well at a place like this, do you remind yourself to stay patient and not get overly aggressive? It seemed like you were able to continue to fire at the correct portion of greens even when you're feeling good.
CAMERON YOUNG: I think, if you're playing that well, it's a really nice opportunity to make it as easy as you can. There's no reason to take any unnecessary risk when, if you're hitting it well, you're going to have opportunities. If you hit it to 20 feet all day, you're going to make a couple. If you're aiming 20 feet, 25 feet all day, you're going to hit a couple closer than you mean to.
To me, I just took the opportunity to try to make sure I had those opportunities. Yeah, you just are constantly aware of the fact that this place can bite you. So to me, it's just a really, really clear mandate that an easy par is never bad, and if you're playing that well, you're going to back your way into some birdies at some point.
I probably made one or two more than I was owed today with a chip-in, and the mistake on 13, I ended up making birdie there. Yeah, it's just one of those times, if you're hitting it well, make it easy on yourself.
Q. How much do you think what you were able to do Sunday at THE PLAYERS Championship down the stretch will help you tomorrow on this stage?
CAMERON YOUNG: I said it, I think in my press conference afterward, that really what I was trying to do was get ready to be playing late on Sunday at Augusta. Now I'm here with what will be a late tee time on Sunday at Augusta, and that's the best prep I could have asked for.
I'll try to run much the same process, same mindset as I did that day. I remember I did a great job of just staying where I was, knowing that everybody's going to do some different things throughout the day. At some point most people are going to go on a run and most people are going to make a bogey or two.
There's no saying when that will be for me, but at the end of the day, you just have to stay kind of in your lane and play the best golf you can and see where you are with a couple holes to go. There's not really much you can change before then.
Q. Cam, can you give us a sense of what the greens are actually like? They look sort of brown and crispy and British Openy, but I'm not sure if they're actually playing that way or not.
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, they're quite firm. A lot of it just depends on what slope your ball lands on, what direction the wind's going, whether you've hit a full shot or not. It's very shot-to-shot dependent. I mean, they are firm, but there are places where it will stop. If you're a little bit into the wind and you're hitting a full wedge, it will stop.
I think they're really nice in the sense that they've been -- they were really consistent today to me, and I feel like that allows you to make some shots when you're going to get a predictable bounce based on what shot you hit. For the most part, I feel like we did a good job of judging that.
They are fast, but they're not the fastest I've ever seen them. So I feel like I've actually had a couple putts here and there where I've been able to just hit a putt and you're not constantly putting with a little bit of hesitation just because they are so fast.
Q. I'm curious if having three kids under 5 ever kind of helps you deal with maybe stressful situations on a golf course or kind of stay patient out there?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I don't know if it's a direct -- directly helpful, but the biggest thing for me is the fact that it's great to have them out on the road with me. I love going home and seeing everybody after whatever day it is. I'd rather go home and see them after a great day, but just having them out on the road is awesome for me.
I love having them out and being able to have a more normal job. Instead of saying good-bye for three weeks or four weeks, whatever it is, I go work a long day, but I was with them this morning, and I will see them tonight. It's nice doing that.
Yeah, things definitely can be stressful at times, but they're very, very different parts of life for me.
Q. Can you take us through 4? Did you misjudge the tee shot in any way? Then on the chip, was there a particular distance that would have made you happy if it hadn't gone in?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, we misjudged it a little bit, but I kind of just hit the wrong shot. I hit kind of a lower shot, and those just are going to bounce. There was a little bit more downwind than we thought, so kind of everything just added up to that one bouncing and rolling much farther than we anticipated.
Yeah, the pitch -- it wasn't -- it's not the most difficult pitch out here. It's not one that has to trickle over that slope like there are so many of those out here. I was trying to get it close, and I think I hit it -- it was probably going to go six feet by, but it was going softly enough just because the greens are quick, that it hit the flagstick and went in.
Q. The last two PLAYERS Championship winners have also followed that up with a win here. How do you feel about the position you've put yourself in going into the final round, and what would it mean if tomorrow ends with you wearing the iconic Green Jacket?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, it would be an incredible day. It's something I've dreamed of doing for a long time. Yeah, I like the position I'm in. If you had said on Thursday at about noon that I was going to be within a couple of the lead going into Sunday, I would have taken it in a heartbeat, especially given the fact that I was watching Rory play.
Yeah, anytime you're around the lead in a major, especially here, anything can happen. We saw today a slow start and a hot start can erase a lot. It's just kind of a matter of keeping myself in it tomorrow and doing the best I can to stay around the lead for as long as possible, and you see what happens at the end.
Q. Can you talk about -- did you feel you got a good break on 13? What was your reaction as you saw the ball going that way? Then talk about the shot on 15.
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, 13 the tee shot is a great break. The only break better than that is if it hit nothing and then carried the water over there. Yeah, any time you hit it left over there, you're just praying that it goes in the hazard and somebody sees it because anything left of there is probably a lost ball.
Yeah, for that ball to end up somewhere that I could hit it, never mind have just kind of a standard 6-iron to the middle of the green, was very fortunate. It's one of those times that really keeps the round going.
Then 15, I just hit the first wedge a little bit too softly. I didn't necessarily mis-hit it, but these greens are firm, like I said, and you don't want to be over that green. Unfortunately, I just made the mistake of being kind of too conservative on that end and not carrying the water.
Then going back there, I knew what it was going to do the second time. So I felt that was easier than going anywhere else and hit the shot I intended to the first time.
Q. If I could, just to follow up, what was your decision there? You could have gone up. Why did you choose to drop it?
CAMERON YOUNG: Just because at that point I knew how hard to swing. I felt like it was just a pretty easy shot the second time. There's not as much guesswork. I liked where I was in the first place. I didn't think it was that hard of a shot to begin with. I just happened to hit a bad one, and more importantly, followed up with a good one and made the putt and moved on.
Q. I was going to ask about 13, but I wanted to ask about 9. You hit it a little long and hit a patron, and it kind of came back on the green. When you have a day where the breaks are kind of going your way in some sense, does it feel like, man, maybe I can just -- I don't know, it's going to be a good day for me? When that happens as a professional golfer, what does it feel like?
CAMERON YOUNG: You'll take anything you can get. We all get enough bad breaks. You're bound to get some good ones, and you're bound to get two or three good ones in a day. I feel, not that I'm owed anything, but when they do start going your way, take them and keep going because they're not always going to.
On 9, I don't know exactly what that shot did. I'm still a bit confused. I think we actually had the wind going 180 degrees the wrong direction. Yeah, if you do hit it long there, I hate to say it, the people are right there. The farthest it's going to get over the green is about 12 feet, and that's just not a bad place. If anything, I was erring on the side of trying to get it back there, and obviously I succeeded.
It's just one of those times where you take your break, two-putt, go to 10.
Q. Cameron, why are you better equipped for this moment than ever before?
CAMERON YOUNG: I think it goes back to what I said earlier about just a very slow buildup of tools and confidence to deal with whatever comes next. I feel that I've gotten a lot better at just being present in what I'm doing.
Out here that's so much of the battle. You're going to get good breaks; you're going to get bad ones. You're going to hit a bad shot or two. The ability to just swallow it and move on and go hit your next shot, the emotions of it, the frustration, whatever it may be, I think this place really punishes you if you play angry or impatient.
When something goes wrong, those are the things that you kind of naturally want to be. So it's fighting those natural inclinations toward those feelings and not letting it affect your decision-making, your execution for another shot.
Q. It took you a few years to get in the winner's circle on the PGA TOUR. Now that that has happened, has some of the pressure or your career goals now shifted to finally winning a major championship?
CAMERON YOUNG: Not particularly. I feel like the pressure that I put on myself has been plenty throughout my career, and whatever additional there would have been from -- I don't even know who else -- to win a tournament, it's not greater than what I'm putting on myself.
Yes, it's great to have won, it's great to have won again, but that guarantees me absolutely nothing moving forward. I'm owed nothing. My past results don't dictate what I do tomorrow.
While I do feel that there's a lot of positive things to take from those events, I've got to go earn whatever I get out of tomorrow, and the best way that I know to do that is kind of try to attack the day like I have the last three.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on a great round today. Thank you very much for joining us.
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