Smylie Kaufman has weighed in on one of golf's hottest debates: Could Rory McIlroy have beaten Cameron Young at the Cadillac Championship if he'd teed it up at Doral?

Young delivered a masterclass at the Blue Monster last week, storming to his second victory of the season. The 28-year-old American opened a commanding five-shot lead by the halfway mark and never looked back, finishing six strokes ahead of Scottie Scheffler to climb back to world No. 3. It was his third PGA Tour win, and it's sparked serious conversation about whether Young is the best golfer on the planet right now.

But here's the catch: McIlroy wasn't in the field. The Northern Irishman has been off since his emotional Masters victory last month—his second green jacket—a win he secured without bringing his A-game. Doral, with its premium on distance, would have seemed like a tailor-made stage for the 37-year-old's power game.

Still, Kaufman isn't buying the idea that anyone—even McIlroy—could have stopped Young's momentum. Speaking on The Smylie Show, the former PGA Tour winner addressed whether the smaller field size at the Cadillac Championship was an issue. His verdict? It would have only added a little more drama.

"I think 120 was always the best number when it comes to competitors playing in their big events. It flowed the best as a player," Kaufman explained. "And you got enough guys in to where you maybe would have a couple more guys who would have an opportunity to chase. But the way that Cam Young and Scottie and these guys are playing, it would have been tough, of course, to see any of the extra 40 players that you could have added would have potentially taken down Cameron Young. No one was beating Cam Young this week, and that's just the bottom line."

That said, Kaufman did point to a bigger concern: the absence of top-tier talent. "But where you could point to the bigger issue is that you need all the guys to play that are at the top—the Rory McIlroys, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick, Robert MacIntyre, the list goes on of players who were not there. Now, those guys could have made a difference."