Cameron Young’s swing is perhaps his greatest asset as a golfer.
Since graduating from the PGA Tour in 2022, the 29-year-old has ranked in the top 35 in SG: Off the Tee every season and has twice ranked in the top 15 in SG: Tee to Green. This season, with his putter sharpened to complement his killer ball, he had a breakout year, winning the Players Championship and finishing in the top five at two majors.
Young’s swing is certainly effective, but it also comes with its own idiosyncrasies. Chief among them is taking a break at the top of his retreat.
“I’m not feeling it, obviously,” Young said on a recent episode of Warming Up. “It looks like it’s hanging in there more than it’s doing.”
So, how did Young’s patented suspension come about? GOLF’s Dylan Dethier explained it.
Why did Young pause?
Although Young’s rest has been compared to other pros who also hit high in their comebacks (see: Hideki Matsuyama), Young feels different in his own way.
“It’s not like Hideki at all,” Young said. “You’re really organized and you’re stopping. And I don’t have the energy to sit there like that.”
Like many different moves in the swing, Young doesn’t even feel like he’s standing up. However, the reason for the slowness actually has to do with the shape of his lead arm at the top of the swing.
While many players strive to have a straight lead arm at the top, Young falls into the camp of those who lose a bit of that structure. Therefore, in order not to rush his transition and introduce problems that may arise from the bent left arm, he ends up taking things slowly in the transition, which leads to a pause.
“I tried to change it,” Young said. “I think about my story [the arm] I bend down and go back [the start of the downswing] full length… as far as bending over, there’s a lot of guys, Scottie up like that, Jordan. All kinds of guys have a little bend in the arm up there.”
If Young has shown anything so far in his Tour career, it’s that even though he has a different throw, he’s still among the best in the game.
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