Cameron Young’s questionable PGA Tour milestone, an X-rated golf video and the last player cut from the ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ cast

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we couldn’t be happier that it finally happened. A breakthrough that millions have been waiting for. One that was promised to happen at some point. That’s right, at long last, Costco’s food courts have made the switch to Coca-Cola products.

What a time to be alive! Oh, you thought I was talking about Cameron Young finally winning a PGA Tour title? Well, I’m also excited to talk about that and everything else happening in the world of golf. Let’s dive in.

WE’RE BUYING

Cameron Young: At long last! Cameron Young is a PGA Tour winner. And a dominant one at that, winning the Wyndham Championship by six shots on a day when his lead nearly got to double digits at one point. And when it was over, the emotions poured out of the 28-year-old tour pro. Kidding!

As we’ve discussed before, the notion that this native New Yorker—a fellow Westchester and Wake Forest guy—grew up on the “mean streets” of NYC is false. But dealing with the scar tissue of seven runners-up, not to mention other close calls, is a lot to overcome (To be fair to Young, he’d surprisingly never held a 54-hole lead before). And this was a perfect time for Young to finally hoist a trophy with the Ryder Cup coming to his home state next month.

Cam’s keys to success? Going back to playing a draw exclusively, playing a new golf ball (a Titleist ProV1 prototype) and relying on his fellow Demon Deacon (Go Deacs!) and caddie, Kyle Sterbinsky, for reads on the greens. Add it all up and we could have a true “THE FLOODGATES ARE OPEN!” situation.

Miyu Yamashita: Another week, another first-time LPGA major championship. Yamashita spent the night of her birthday on the range after a disappointing third round at Royal Porthcawl. But the extra session paid off as the 24-year-old shot a Sunday 70 to hold off Charley Hull and Minami Katsu by two shots at the AIG Women's Open.

Yamashita was congratulated by a bunch of fellow Japanese stars, and the country is having a moment with four LPGA major champs in the past two seasons after just two previously. “For us to support each other is something that I'm really looking forward to in the future as well.” But the shot(s) of the week (year?) went to Steph Kyriacou and Mimi Rhodes, the latter who banked her tee shot off the golf ball of the former for one of the craziest hole-in-ones ever:

It was shades of Louis Oosthuizen banking one off J.B. Holmes’ ball on 16 on Sunday at the 2016 Masters, except this was a 212-yard hole with no funnel pin. Back to Kyriacou, we’d feel sorry for her for just missing an ace if she hadn’t already made a SLAM DUNK ace earlier in the tourney:

Steph might have to start her own YouTube trick-shot channel.

Hunter Mahan: First of all, congrats to this six-time PGA Tour winner for walking away from competitive golf early and finding happiness in retirement. That includes Mahan coaching a high school golf team, which we found out when he was on last week’s episode of The Loop pod. But we also wanted to talk to him about being a part of golf cinematic history by being Adam Sandler’s body double in “Happy Gilmore 2.”

What a cool gig. However, we’ve since learned from Skratch's Chad Mumm that Hunter wasn’t originally slated for the part (Actually, no one was until Adam Sandler hurt his knee) and that it was originally given to … drum roll please … Michael Block! But after getting all done up and filming some shots, it was determined he didn’t look enough like Sandler, well, Happy:

Poor Blockie. The last golfer cut from a classic golf movie. And before you roll your eyes at that assessment, just know that “Happy Gilmore 2” set a Netflix record for 46.7 million views during its opening weekend. The actors in it with royalty deals are going to be laughing swinging all the way to the bank.

Jackson Koivun: What an absolute stud. The 20-year-old standout from Auburn University finished T-5 at the Wyndham Championship.

But wait! There’s more! He also finished T-6 at the ISCO Championship and T-11 at the John Deere Classic. Those are his last three starts on the PGA Tour. As an amateur. Again, what an absolute stud.

WE’RE SELLING

Jackson Koivun not getting paid: For all that great golf, this young man received exactly ZERO dollars based on his amateur status. As I’ve argued before, there’s no way to know if he would have had the same results had he been playing for money. HOWEVAH, there’s also no reason—especially in this NIL Era—that this guy shouldn’t be able to keep the paycheck he earned. Heck, this is his summer job! Just instead of working for minimum wage at a kids camp, he’s beating grown men at golf.

Anyway, the dude is going to be fine long term—Koivun also has his PGA Tour card locked up for when he decides to turn pro—and I’m sure these results will lead to more NIL money as he finishes up his time at Auburn, but it just doesn’t make sense that he can’t play for tournament cash as well.

Cameron Young being “Mr. 1,000”: I first saw this mentioned in a PGA Tour notes email last week and I thought it was a cool stat. And while on some level it is, as many including Golf Channel's Brentley Romine noted, it’s also a deeply flawed stat.

Young is the 1,000th winner if you count 414 golfers who won what eventually became PGA Tour events. By that measure, Willie Park is the first PGA Tour winner for claiming the 1860 British Open, more than a century before the PGA Tour was officially founded in 1968. So, yeah, pretty flimsy. But that was a fun photo!

Yani Tseng’s falloff: Long before Nelly, the LPGA had another dominant World No. 1. And this one actually racked up majors with five in a four-year span. And then … golf happened. The cruel kind of golf. Fans were reminded of this when Tseng, who now putts lefty to overcome the yips, made the cut at the AIG Women’s Open, her first made cut at a major in … eight years.

It was great to see her back playing the weekend at a major again, even if she did shoot 78-76 to finish T-63. At the very least, she added a new chapter to one of the wildest Wikipedia major championship grids ever:

Keep grinding, Yani.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour’s postseason begins with the FedEx Cup Playoffs, AKA those playoffs that aren’t exactly like the playoffs in other sports. Case in point, if you thought all the top golfers would be playing this week in Memphis, you’d be wrong! That’s because Rory McIlroy is sitting out because it really won’t affect him much ahead of the Tour Championship in a couple weeks. Anyway, not like it matters because Scottie Scheffler is just going to win the whole thing again.

Random tournament fact: It’s been five years since Bryson DeChambeau tried to get relief from fire ants here:

Man, time flies.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—There will be another banked hole-in-one this week: 1 MILLION-to-1 odds

—Cameron Young will win again this week: 40-to-1 odds (Again)

—A lot more golfers will be playing Cameron Young’s golf ball this week: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK (FATHERLY ADVICE DIVISION)

Joel Dahmen dropping some knowledge about how to prepare your kids for tournament golf by not dropping all your money paying for tournament fees:

Joel sounds like a fellow fiscally responsible father. Respect.

TWEET OF THE WEEK (GAMBLING ADVICE DIVISION)

It’s been well established that Cameron Young is a favorite of Golf (Gambling) Twitter. It’s also been well established that he’s caused that community a lot of heartbreak through the years, myself included. But for those who stuck it out and kept betting on Young, well, you’re still down a LOT of money:

Just another reminder that The House always wins.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

While the Cameron Coronation continued, CBS showed this photo of the scene at Young’s home course, Sleepy Hollow Country Club:

And it turned out to be quite a boozy watch party with all the birdies he made, plus the open bar that kicked in for an hour once he won:

Sunday would have been a particularly great day to play Sleepy Hollow, but instead, I played at Split Rock Golf Course in the Bronx—near Cam’s high school, Fordham Prep—in honor of him going for his first win:

Kidding. That was the only place I could get a tee time. And I wound up getting eaten alive by mosquitos because it's right next to a swamp. Yes, somehow there's a swamp in the Bronx. So, Cam or David—Cam's dad and the longtime golf pro at Sleepy Hollow—please let me know if you ever need a fourth at Sleepy.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (CLUTCH DIVISION)

Speaking of invites, how about the conclusion of the member guest at Chris Bargas Golf Club at Whitney Farms in Monroe, Conn.? Check out James Cliggott sinking a 114-foot walk-off bomb from off the green:

Incredible. Now some reports have James’ putt as 115 feet. Regardless, it was ridiculous.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (X-RATED DIVISION)

OK, so it wouldn’t technically be X-rated because you can’t really see what’s going on. But, well, here it is:

The guy had that—not to mention a deer roaming in front of him—and he still striped one. Now that’s impressive concentration. OK, let's move on … to someone moving on …

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Sunday’s CBS broadcast was the final one for Ian Baker-Finch, who seems to be as universally liked as much as anyone in golf:

Aww. And then there were the many photos of Cameron and David Young:

What a moment for dad. He might have even felt as proud of his son as Golf (Gambling) Twitter was for its boy.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS

Speaking of fathers and sons, LeBron and Bronny James took to the course:

And LeBron declared that he’s “getting there” with his swing.

Good stuff, King. Then there’s Baltimore Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton, who is all the way there with his swing:

What a move!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"It's just really hard for me to play the smart play if I see anything else." —Jordan Spieth finally saying the quiet part out loud.

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Jeeno Thitikul on becoming the new No. 1 in women’s golf, taking the top spot from Nelly Korda. Even more impressive(?), she did it without winning any majors. … Charlie Woods had a chance to win a junior golf major before a rough final round at the Junior PGA Championship (By the way, congrats to Lunden Esterlin who won by as many shots as Cameron Young). Still, it’s another encouraging step for Tiger’s son. … And, finally, congrats to a pair of my high school pals, Kevin Harrigan (75) and Steve McDermott (87) on shooting career-best scores:

And that 87 is a lot more impressive when you find out that I call Steve “The 40-year-old (Golf) Virgin” because he didn’t take up the game until he was 40. Good stuff, guys. And the best part is that I’ll have to give each of them fewer strokes when I try to defend my title belt when we have our third annual Pelham golf buddies trip in October.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Has Cameron Young ever gone to my Costco?

Has Cameron Young ever played at Split Rock?

Will these bug bites ever stop itching?