GREENSBORO – Cameron Young shot 2-under-par 68 in the final round of the Wyndham Championship and wasn’t challenged on his way to his first PGA Tour victory Sunday in North Carolina.
Young strung together five consecutive early birdies and cruised to a six-stroke triumph at 22-under 258 at Sedgefield Country Club, where he matched the tournament scoring record.
Young, who began the day with a five-stroke advantage and held the 54-hole lead for the first time on the tour, became the 1,000th different winner in the history of the PGA Tour. He was a seven-time runner-up on the tour.
Mac Meissner posted 66 to finish as the runner-up at 16 under. Mark Hubbard (63) and Sweden’s Alex Noren (64) tied for third place at 15 under. Amateur Jackson Koivun (67), a junior golfer at Auburn University, Chris Kirk (68), and defending champion Aaron Rai (68) of England shared fifth place at 14 under.
Playing not far from the Wake Forest campus where he went to college, Young was in control for most of the tournament.
After a bogey on the first hole Sunday, Young put together his string of birdies for what became a nine-stroke advantage. Young then had pars on nine consecutive holes before bogeys on the par-3 16th and par-4 17th. He barely missed a birdie attempt on the last hole.
Colombia’s Nico Echavarria, who was in the final pairing with Young, tumbled from the leaderboard with a disastrous stretch on the back nine. After a bogey at No. 10, he carded double-bogeys on the next two holes. His 75 left him tied for 19th place at 10 under.
Denny McCarthy matched Hubbard’s 63 for the best score Sunday and ended up at 12 under and tied for 11th place.
Rookie Karl Vilips posted his first hole-in-one with a 179-yard shot on the third hole. His 67 put him at 10 under.
The tournament marks the final regular-season event on the tour, with golfers needing to finish in the top 70 of the season standings to advance to the FedEx Cup playoffs beginning Thursday.
Kirk played his way into the tournament by jumping 12 spots since the beginning of the tournament.
Davis Thompson (68) nded at 12 under, missing the top-70 position by one spot. Gary Woodland was on the bubble, but his final-day 70 left him at 9 under for the tournament and sharing 23rd place, so he was projected to finish 72nd.
–Field Level Media