What’s there really to talk about with your playing competitor in the final pairing at Augusta on Sunday?
Cameron Young didn’t answer a question with a question but he might as well have after speaking to reporters following his T-3 finish at the 2026 Masters.
Young, the reigning Players Championship winner, was asked what it was like interacting with Rory McIlroy on his way to a successful Masters defense.
“There is not much,” said Young, who copped to not being a chatty Cathy on the course either.
“I don’t think he really wanted to talk to me today,” Young added. “Sunday at the Masters in the final group, you know, don’t wish anything poorly on the guy, but we’re playing against each other. Not trying to be best friends out there.”
McIlroy wasn’t asked any direct questions at his press conference about what it was like playing with Young but did reference keeping eyes on his partner’s score at several points during the round.
“I’m looking for other people as well to see how they’re doing, but most of the time I know that doesn’t serve me,” he admitted. “So these targets are more to just keep me from looking at it too much.”
For his part, McIlroy said the dialogue was limited — even with his own caddie, Harry Diamond.
“There wasn’t a ton of talk out there,” McIlroy said. “I think we both knew what we needed to do. I just needed to step up and execute.”
Young was asked a second McIlroy-related question, and reiterated that Sunday at the Masters is “just one of those times that you leave each other be.
“There were one or two [moments], but not many,” he added.
The No. 3-ranked player in the world said there’s plenty to learn from watching the No. 2-ranked McIlroy play, even if the dialogue is minimal between holes.
“I watched him play three rounds this week,” Young said. “I think if you asked him, he would admit that he didn’t drive it particularly straight the first two days and did some incredible scoring.”
DeChambeau déjà vu?
Neither player was pressed on the controversial interaction that happened on the ninth hole between the final pairing at last year’s Masters.
McIlroy was half of that pairing. The other was Bryson DeChambeau.
The two debated similar length birdie putts. The dispute led to a continued icy dynamic that DeChambeau immediately addressed after the 2025 final round.
"[He] didn’t talk to me once all day,” the two-time U.S. Open champ said at the time.
McIlroy has been chatty about the subject. He spoke about it before last year’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.
“I don’t know what he was expecting,” he told reporters in May 2025. “We’re trying to win the Masters. I’m not going to try to be his best mate out there.”
The dispute could have ended there but it did not.
McIlroy had a documentary coming out this year, and addressed the ninth hole controversy in it.
“It’s very gamesmanship-y, match play thing. Really, both of us want to putt first because if you can hole that before your opponent it puts pressure on them,” he explained in “Rory McIlroy: The Masters Wait.” “He goes, ‘Why don’t we just throw a tee up for it to see who goes first.’ And I’m like, ‘No, this is the final round of the Masters. This isn’t some like game on a Tuesday afternoon somewhere.’ ... I wasn’t going to wilt in that situation. I’m going to stand firm.”