Silver medals for Cameron Young don’t tarnish the talent
David Duval was headed to the California desert for the next PGA Tour Champions event when something in his news feed caught his attention. Cameron Young has seven runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour in the last 40 years, the most of anyone who had never won.
The phrasing made it sound as if Young had set a record, and Duval didn’t think that was right. Because three decades ago, the news item could have been about him.
“Wasn’t it seven for me?” he asked.
Duval was runner-up to Greg Norman and Tom Watson at the Memorial in consecutive years, to Mark O’meara and Peter Jacobsen at Pebble Beach, along with second-place finishes in Canada, Atlanta and the Bob Hope Classic. So yes, that adds to seven.
Young joined him on Sunday in the Valspar Championship. He was tied for the lead until Peter Malnati hit 5-iron to 6 feet for birdie on the par-3 17th. Young, playing in the group ahead, made it easier for Malnati with a wild tee shot, a decent recovery and a three-putt bogey from 50 feet to finish two shots behind.
That was his seventh runner-up finish, and he can only hope there are more comparisons with Duval before long.
“He’s lucky — he tied a good player,” Duval said. It was a sardonic boast, yes, but also a reminder to Young — whom he has never met — that silver medals don’t tarnish talent.
Duval went 75 starts from his rookie year in 1995 before he finally broke through at the end of his third season. He then won 13 times over his next 79 starts, including the 2001 British Open, the best Sunday 59 in history and two stints at No. 1 when Tiger Woods was in his prime.
All he knows about the 26-year-old Young is what he sees on TV — that rhythmic takeaway, the pause at the top and a swing that looks like it can rip the urethane off his Pro V1.
But he can appreciate the impatience and frustration when the chatter is more about the talent than the trophy.
“Once you realize as a player that you’re doing everything you can and you don’t have to do anything different, it opens up the gates,” Duval said. “You feel like you have to win. But really you’ve just got to play.”