NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Cameron Young isn't trying to be a trendsetter. He's just another PGA Tour pro looking for any edge he can find. But sometimes, the smallest adjustments make the biggest waves.
That was the scene Wednesday morning at the PGA Championship, when Young met with the media after news broke that he's been playing a golf ball that would likely meet the new rollback standards set to hit elite competition in 2028—or possibly as late as 2030. The buzz was real, but Young stayed cool.
"I was kind of surprised in a sense," he said, "but at the same time, it didn't change that I had played well with it, and I was comfortable. I feel like I'm playing a golf ball that's best for how I'm playing the game at the moment. If that works out to mean that this goes into effect and I'm still playing the ball however many years from now, it makes it an easy change."
Young revealed he found out "a few weeks ago" that the Titleist Pro V1x Double Dot he switched to at last year's Wyndham Championship would likely fit the new rules. That switch paid off immediately—he won the Wyndham for his first PGA Tour victory and has since added two more titles. Not bad for a ball change.
The numbers tell the story even better. Before the switch, Young's driving average sat at 302.7 yards. This season? Exactly the same—302.7 yards. But the real highlight came at The Players Championship in March, where he smashed the longest drive in ShotLink history at 375 yards on the 72nd hole, sealing the win.
The Pro V1x Double Dot wasn't built with the rollback in mind—the USGA's new standard aims to cut elite driving distances by 13 to 15 yards. Instead, it's a lower-spin option that just happens to align with where the game is headed. For Young, that's no problem at all.
"The manufacturers are so good," he added. "They're going to find their way to make a good golf ball no matter what the restrictions are. It doesn't really concern me that much, frankly."
Whether or not Young sees himself as a trailblazer, his ball choice is already turning heads—and maybe pointing the way for the rest of the tour.