Cameron Young’s silver monster, Rory McIlroy’s movie cameo and a famed Anthony Kim artifact resurfaces

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we think it’s probably time to strip Doral of that “Blue Monster” nickname. More like the Red Monster with all those low scores, including Cameron Young, who would have gotten to 20 under if not for calling a penalty on himself.

As Bobby Jones famously said, “You may as well praise someone for not robbing a bank,” but when a prize purse the size of a bank is on the line, that’s still impressive. Especially when they were playing lift, clean and place and Young wasn’t even sure if he caused his golf ball to move. Calling an official over to confirm you did something wrong is quite a contrast to the flopping competition taking place in the NBA on a nightly basis to trick referees. Anyway, he still got up and down from 155 yards to make par so either the golf gods rewarded him or, more likely, he’s just really freaking good. Anyway, let’s talk about Young’s latest masterpiece and everything else going on in the game.

WE’RE BUYING

Cameron Young: Is my fellow Westchester/Wake Forest guy the best player on the planet right now? Young cruised to a six-shot victory at the Cadillac Championship, taming the Blue Monster with his silver monster, or, rather, his silver Phantom, as in Cameron’s Scotty Cameron Phantom prototype putter that allowed him to gain more than seven strokes on the field and sink 378-feet worth of putts for the week.

And speaking of equipment, all three of his wins have come since switching to a Titleist Pro V1 “Double Dot” ahead of last year’s Wyndham Championship. Young settled on that ball after going to Titleist’s Performance Center in Acushnet, Mass., in the fall of 2024—the same place I went to get fitted for a golf ball a couple weeks ago.

So now Cam is my fellow Westchester/Wake/Titleist guy. I don’t think I’m going to be winning any $3.6 million first-place prizes soon, but at least I know I was in good hands!

Nelly Korda: While Young has had a fantastic season, Korda has had an off-the-charts one. A week after winning her third major, she won again at the Riviera Maya Open for an 18th career LPGA title. But more amazing is that she’s only lost to three people all year. Look at this insane stat:

And after her latest victory, Nelly got jiggy with it as the kids say.

OK, so the kids haven’t said that in decades. Man, I’m getting old. Anyway, nice moves, Nelly. Then again, we should expect nothing less from someone with such a smooth tempo in her golf swing (BTW, how did I NOT bet Golden Tempo in the Derby?! Sigh.). And as she told Pat McAfee, that came from her parents getting her to say “Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola,” to herself:

I'm going to give that a try. In related news, I’m very thirsty all of a sudden.

Stewart Cink: Speaking of dominance, the 52-year-old won a second consecutive senior major championship. On top of that, he’s won five of his past eight PGA Tour Champions starts and finished no worse than sixth place. Plus, it looks like he’s solved that nasty hat tan problem somehow:

And he may have been topped in that area by someone else (More on that later). But no one is topping Cink on the senior circuit right now. And while we’re on the topic of super (playing) seniors, have a listen to our chat with the great Hale Irwin on this week’s episode of The Loop podcast.

WE’RE SELLING

Justin Rose’s new irons debut: My worries—and, frankly, the rest of the golf world’s worries—about Rose’s recent equipment change came to fruition this week as the 45-year-old only beat two golfers at Doral with his new sticks. Now it wasn’t just his McLaren irons that let him down, but he did only rank 46th in the field in strokes gained approach.

It’s only one week, but it was not a reassuring one for someone with a futures bet on him at the PGA Championship. Suddenly, my 80-to-1 ticket on him at Aronomink doesn’t look so sharp. Sigh again.

Tony Romo: It might be time for the 46-year-old to give up on his U.S. Open dreams. After shooting 79 at a local qualifier, the former Dallas Cowboys QB missed advancing by 11 shots. Long one of the best celebrity golfers around, it’s now been 16 years since Romo advanced to sectional qualifying:

Look, I’m not going to tell anyone to stop chasing their dreams, but at this point, Tony would probably be better off waiting a few years and trying to qualify for the U.S. Senior Open.

Filming your U.S. Open qualifier: To Romo’s credit, he keeps as low of a profile at these qualifiers as possible. The same can not be said for Dalton Joyce, AKA “youngdalt” on Instagram, who decided to film his entire qualifier as he shot 82. Now, I’ve got to give him credit for going through with posting such a rough day, but as many people pointed out, this doesn’t feel appropriate—especially for his playing partners.

Something tells me the USGA will be a bit more strict with this stuff next year.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour season rolls on with ... this can’t be right ... another signature event? That’s right! We are really in a jam-packed period of the schedule with the Truist Championship, AKA that one at Quail Hollow, so we’re going from the Blue Monster to the Green Mile. And to add to the chaos, there’s also the opposite-field event, the Myrtle Beach Classic. This will be the first of two big golf tournaments in Myrtle Beach this year, the other being this year’s HGGA Championship, AKA my annual golf trip. The LPGA heads to Mountain Ridge in New Jersey, site of the 2023 Golf Digest Seitz Cup, for the Mizuho Americas Open. And LIV Golf, despite the confirmed ending of Saudi PIF funding, will be at Trump National Golf Club in D.C. So, there’s no shortage of golf action to watch!

Random tournament fact: It’s been 13 years since Derek Ernst won at Quail Hollow as the tournament’s fourth alternate and the 1,207th-ranked player in the world. Ernst, who is now an assistant golf coach at the University of Tennessee, was back at the Masters this year—as a caddie. That 2013 Wells Fargo Championship might be the biggest upset in golf history.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Cameron Young will be switching golf balls anytime soon: 3.6 MILLION-to-1 odds

—Cameron Young will win again this week: 9-to-1 odds (Actual odds, 2nd-favorite)

—Whoever wins in Myrtle will earn a LOT more than my golf trip’s winner: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Justin Rose may have had an off week on the course, but he was on fire on Twitter:

That’s a good comeback. But an even better one would be to play better this week ahead of the PGA Championship.

PHOTO(S) OF THE WEEK

Sepp Straka had a nice finish, but what happened after he removed his hat on Sunday is what garnered the most attention:

Looks like a little soul patch on the back of his head. Sepp and Stewart Cink are now both first-ballot members of the golf tan hall of fame. And then there was this great photo of Anthony Kim and his wife featuring the famed “AK” belt buckle—a fashion piece better than anything on display at the Met Gala:

I knew he still had that somewhere! That thing actually belongs in the actual World Golf Hall of Fame.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Nice job by John Daly letting this kid inside the ropes to putt—and an even nicer job by this kid in making it:

The next generation of great golfers just keeps getting younger and younger!

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

How about this sweet answer from Cameron Young about what he was most happy about after winning at Doral?

Aww. A leading candidate for both PGA Tour Player of the Year and Father of the Year right now.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION ACTING

Unfortunately, there aren’t any clips (yet), but Rory McIlroy made a cameo in “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and even has a speaking line:

And this all came out of an interview at the Players last year where Rory said he watched the original movie to loosen up before his Monday playoff against J.J. Spaun. What a world.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“For all the haters, whatever, be haters.” —Michael Block, who turns 50 next month, with an amazing quote after qualifying for an even more amazing fifth consecutive PGA Championship by finishing T-10 at the PGA Professional Championship thanks to a clutch final round at Bandon Dunes.

Never change, Blockie. Can't wait to watch him in action again at Aronomink.

THIS AND THAT

Alex Fitzpatrick, in his first start as a PGA Tour member, finished T-9 at Doral to earn $500,000. Not bad considering a lot of people just think of him as Matt’s little brother. . . . Grant Horvant and the Bryan Bros revealed the full roster for their new Your Golf Tour. YouTube Golf continues to grow and thrive. . . . Scottie Scheffler is the first player with three consecutive PGA Tour runner-ups since Sergio Garcia in 2014. And this is considered a slump for the World No. 1. . . . And, finally, happy Cinco de Mayo to everyone. Which reminds me that this new Guillermo’s salsa that’s been at Costco the past few weeks is outstanding:

Thank you, Guillermo. And you’re welcome, everybody.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

How many wins will Cameron Young wind up with this year?

How many golf balls does Cameron Young go through a year?

How many ounces of salsa do I go through in a year?