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Cameron Young called a penalty on himself and still won $3.6 million by six strokes. He then shook hands with the POTUS. Clearly, it was a special moment for Young. When asked what it was like to win with Trump in attendance, he didn’t hold back his gratitude.

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“He’s nothing if not a very, very interesting man. He’s very powerful, and it’s an honor to get to play in front of him. Hugely grateful to him and his family and his organization that has these beautiful properties and allows us to come and play great golf tournaments on them,” he told the media.

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Young also noted that Trump was “just very complimentary” in their brief exchange, adding that he thanked the president for hosting the event. Trump arrived at Doral around 12:15 p.m. on Sunday with his granddaughter, Kai Trump, and son Donald Trump Jr., walking from the hotel to their suites on the 18th green. After Cameron Young’s win, Trump stepped out and waved to the crowd, with fans chanting “USA! USA!”

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Young also shed light on what it was like for him to have so many Secret Service agents for Trump and how it changed his rhythm of the day.

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“The place is obviously crawling with Secret Service and security and police, and it has a definitely different feel. I came out to go down to the side door where we’ve been coming into the clubhouse all week and kind of had two guys step together and say, ‘Hey, we’re not letting anybody through this way right now.’ So I was just walking in towards the locker room, towards dining, and had to turn around and walk all the way around the clubhouse to get back to that door. So there are little things like that that are obviously different with the president here, and it changed the rhythm of the day a little bit to start, but it was already so thrown off by the delays that, you know, it didn’t matter too much.”

Notably, this wasn’t Young and Trump’s first meeting. Cameron Young represented the United States at the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in September, where Trump attended the opening fourballs session on day one. So when the golfer said, “I’ve been fortunate to meet him before,” Bethpage Black is almost certainly where that came from.

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Young won THE PLAYERS Championship in March 2026, finished T3 at the Masters in April, and now has back-to-back wins at two of the biggest events on the PGA Tour calendar. He sits fourth in the world rankings. When you’re playing that kind of golf on a course Trump owns, the appreciation on both sides is easy to understand.

Trump’s interest in the PGA Tour’s top players has been consistent in 2026. At a White House state dinner on April 28 for King Charles III, he stopped his own speech to acknowledge Rory McIlroy’s Masters win.

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“That was unconquerable courage,” Trump said, asking McIlroy to stand up in front of the room. Interrupting a state dinner for a golfer makes the point clearly enough.

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Young’s final round of 68 came despite calling a penalty on himself on the second hole after his ball moved in the fairway, a hole he parred anyway. Scheffler finished six shots back at -13. Yet for Young, the celebration was as low-key as his demeanor on course.

Cameron Young reveals no trophy case, no party plans after win

When someone asked him what he’d do after THE PLAYERS victory, he said he’d probably just drive home. Sunday at Doral, he gave the same answer. The plan after lifting a $20 million trophy was to get everyone packed, get out of Doral, drive back, and then head to Charlotte on Tuesday.

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“Tomorrow is back to work,” he said. “It’s non-stop.”

A big reason Young has been so sharp this year is the partnership with his caddie, Kyle. They are now closing in on a year together at next week’s Truist Championship. The 28-year-old said the two of them keep getting better at reading each other, knowing their roles, and cutting out the noise. It shows in the results.

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In fact, Doral was the last course that Kyle walked for the first time on the Tour. Young knows it only gets easier from here.

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Vishnupriya Agrawal

1,511 Articles

Vishnupriya Agrawal is a Golf Writer at EssentiallySports, covering the PGA Tour and LPGA with a focus on breaking news, player controversies, and the stories that run alongside competitive golf. Her reporting moves across player movement, ranking shifts, and the moments that generate fan debate alongside the quieter human ones that tend to get buried in a tournament week. She covered the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills extensively, reporting on Jon Rahm's on-course outburst and the USGA's response, the crowd confrontations involving Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark, and Miles Russell's Father's Day caddie arrangement, which the USGA approved as a one-off exception. Before joining EssentiallySports, Vishnupriya worked as a freelance sports writer, developing a research-driven approach across formats and audiences. At ES, that carries through to her full range of golf coverage, from prize money breakdowns and earnings profiles to the off-course developments and player decisions that often explain what happens on the course.

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Riya Singhal

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