Cameron Young will take a three-shot lead into the weekend at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic after firing a stunning 64 on day two at Emirates Golf Club.
Related: Li Haotong stays on road to redemption in Dubai
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The World Number 25 is making his debut at this event but has made himself right at home, carding 14 birdies and an eagle over the first two rounds to get to 13 under. That includes a remarkable run of scoring after being level par after his first 12 holes of the week, picking up 14 shots in his next 22 to fly up the leaderboard.
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Pole Adrian Meronk and England’s Andy Sullivan were the nearest challengers after rounds of 66 and 67 respectively, with Danish twins Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard and Scotland’s Richie Ramsay at seven under.
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Young has two runner-up finishes on the DP World Tour at the 2022 Open Championship and 2023 WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play to go with four more on the PGA TOUR but has yet to add to his two Korn Ferry Tour victories from 2021.
A Rolex Series triumph would be a spectacular way to return to the winner’s circle and the 26-year-old believes the putter was key to getting him in pole position.
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Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald made the sixth hole-in-one of the season and second of his DP World career when he holed an eight iron from 183 yards on the fourth.
Player quotes
Cameron Young: I putted fantastic. I made a couple long ones yesterday and then made a few more today that those had no right going in I feel like. I hit a bunch of good putts but just one of those days where you kind of have a couple 30-footers and you look up and they are going right in the middle, which doesn’t happen all that often to have a bunch of them in one round. But really nicely and putted great.
I’m doing a really good job of doing just what you said, staying out of my own way. Kind of realised it was going well early but the back nine, at the same time, it feels like you should do that to some extent, especially in the morning with not much wind.
So yeah, I feel like the back nine, I just playing really solidly, and then made a putt on one. Made a putt on four, and all of a sudden, that was the heat or something. Just one of those days that they kept kind of going in, and I didn’t make too many mistakes.
It is different. There’s just more scoring holes on the back. The front nine, I think there’s a couple more tricky tee shots. Really, five and six and eight I think are the hard ones.
And then two, I totally butchered two days in a row. That’s like one of your opportunities on the front and I’ve hit bad drives both days. It’s just different. The front nine is a little bit less comfortable, and there’s just not as many scorable holes.
Adrian Meronk: Overall, solid game. The it was tricky out there. The course got firmer and firmer. Greens were fast. Yeah, just playing really solid from tee-to-green. I holed a lot of good putts, a couple good saves.
The experience gives you a little more confidence that you’ve done it before, so you can do it again. The key is just to stick to your plan for your game, trust your shots, full commitment. Don’t get too ahead of yourself. I think that’s the key. It’s easy to say but I think you have to experience first and then it gets easier but it’s never easy. But at least I have some experience under my belt.
I wasn’t expecting that award to be honest. When I got it (Seve Ballesteros Award), I was super surprised. Yeah, it’s a great feeling to be awarded by the players. It’s special and I’m thankful to every player who voted for me.
Andy Sullivan: I don’t know, it’s sort of a different feeling. I didn’t think I would ever be coming off disappointed sitting at ten-under after two rounds, but after that start today, I just got literally picked up where I left off yesterday and hit a lot of golf shots to sort of ten, 15 feet, rolled it lovely and then going into the back nine, I got three par fives.
Felt like I had a chance of really going low and didn’t quite drive it as good on the back nine and hit it as close. Like I say, it’s hard to be disappointed when you’re ten-under after two rounds.
Well, I don’t know how long I’d be playing professional golf without it. It was just me being comfortable on the golf course, and when you’re under pressure, you want to hit that little shot every time. I just didn’t have it. I was hitting some serious wides at times, which is frightening. Yeah, it was just more like my actual career depended on it (laughs).
I think that’s the mindset I had in terms of I was good at what I did and it was good enough to contend quite a lot. You just think, what if, what if I try and do this. You try and push the boundaries, and it’s not right.
I think sometimes you’ve just got to accept what you’re good at and try and improve the little one percenters around the greens and wedge shots and stuff, and that’s what you’ve got to work with, you know what I mean. I think a little bit of age has come in, finally, a bit of experience. Just swallowed my pride and said, “Jamie, please take me back.”
