Cameron Young birdied seven out of nine holes during the middle of Friday’s second round in Atlanta, charging up the Tour Championship leaderboard a day removed after being tied in last place.
He made a 42-foot eagle putt at the par-5 18th, finishing off an 8-under 62 to temporarily catch first-round leader Min Woo Lee who completed his first hole a few minutes before Young’s day ended.
It was a remarkable turnaround for Young, who was one of just three players in the field to card an opening-round 70. He bogeyed three of his first five holes and never recovered Thursday, despite a Round 1 scoring average that dipped below 67.
“I looked up and I was 2 over, and everybody was under par, and I was kinda contemplating my life choices a little bit,” he told Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis.
“Yesterday didn’t feel that bad, got off to a tough start and wasn’t in the fairway enough,” he added, when asked how he was able to flip the switch.
He hit nine fairways on Thursday, and was limited with the putter.
Round 2 was the complete opposite for the 2026 Players champ, who was the first player off the tee and posted a 30 on his front nine behind a string of three straight birdies from holes 4-6.
Young missed just one fairway during the round and made 136 feet of putts.
He went birdie-birdie to open his back nine — opening the possibility for a sub-60 score — before running into trouble at the par-4 12th. His first bogey of the round dropped Young to 6 under, where he stayed for more than an hour thanks to five consecutive pars.
Then came the big moment to finish the round.
“You see 62 out here a lot of days, last couple of years there’s been one a lot of days and you have to be the one to shoot it on a day like to day,” said Young, who posted a 61 at the Rocket Classic earlier this summer and who won at the Truist in May.
Playing in a bubble
Young played as a single for the first time in his Tour career Friday.
It was the fastest round of 62 or better in FedExCup playoff history.
“It’s one of those things you don’t really prepare for,” he told Lewis. “After a couple of holes, you’re just playing — and it was going well, and it was nice to be in our own bubble and just keep going.”
Lee had somewhat similar conditions a day earlier when he carded his own 62, tying a career low round on Tour. Lee was playing with J.J. Spaun on the front nine, when the 2025 U.S. Open champ withdrew due to a right shoulder injury.
He called the scenario a “little bit weird” but found himself warming up to it, same as Young.
"[You’re] looking for a playing partner and you’re just there by yourself,” Lee described the scene after Spaun went off in a golf cart on the sixth hole Thursday. “It was more just maintaining speeds and not rushing because I would just catch the group in front and wait. So I had to just slow down a little bit. It worked out.”
Leaderboard check
Lee went on to par the opening four holes of his second round before a costly triple bogey at the par-4 fifth dropped him down the leaderboard. He never recovered and sits tied for 15th, five back entering the weekend.
For his effort, Young moved up 22 spots on the leaderboard and sits T-5 with Scottie Scheffler.
Scheffler and Young, a pair of player of the year contenders, are two shots off Ryan Gerard and Viktor Hovland’s 36-hole co-lead at 10 under.
Behind Gerard and Hovland in a tie for second at 9 under are Collin Morikawa and Chris Gotterup.
Gerard was bogey-free after the opening hole, carding his second straight 5-under 65 at East Lake.
“We’ve been putting ourselves in good spots off the tee and been really particular with approach shot targets, taking on pins that you know you can take on and being ultra conservative on the ones where we see there could be troubled,” Gerard told Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis.
There’s still plenty of hope for almost everyone in the field as 17 players are within five shots of the leaders.
Gerard explained that the greens at East Lake remind him of those he plays at home in North Carolina.
Like Lee, Gerard is making his Tour Champonship debut. That makes it two days in a row where a newcomer to East Lake is carrying a lead — or at least part of it.
Gerard credited his short game for vaulting him up four spots to the top.
“I’ve done a good job from being a below average putter to an above average one — it was always a strength of mine growing up and went into a lull there the last year and a half or so,” Gerard said. “I’ve seen a lot of results be better than last year because I’ve been putting consistently.”