Highest-ranked player at Rocket Classic goes super-low in Round 2

DETROIT — The highest-ranked player at the Rocket Classic went low on Friday.

Cameron Young, No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking, came out blazing in the second round and shot a 9-under 61 to tie the course record and vault to the top of the leaderboard halfway through the tournament at Detroit Golf Club, setting the weekend up for a star-studded sprint to the finish line in the eighth and final Rocket Classic.

Cameron Young was at 10 under, tied with Patrick Cantlay early on Day 2, with fan favorite and 2023 Rocket Classic champion Rickie Fowler squarely in the mix early in his second round, which began in the afternoon.

"I mean, most things," the matter-of-fact Young said after his Friday round, when asked what went right in bouncing back from an opening 69. "It felt like I had a 10-footer for birdie on pretty much every hole. I made a bunch of them in a row on the (first nine) ... then the putter kind of went cold a little bit for my second nine. Just really sold golf all the way through. Happy to have kind of played my way back in the tournament."

Young opened Friday with a first-nine 28, or 7 under, on the strength of six birdies in a row at one point. He even birdied the long, tough, par-4 17th, which yielded only five birdies in the first round. Already a member of the exclusive 59 Club, he had thoughts of a double dip there ("I was thinking about 55," he said, with a straight face, though with him it's tough to tell if he's serious), until he grinded his way through his second nine.

He rolled in a 20-footer for one more birdie at the par-4 eighth hole, before missing a 17-footer for birdie on his last hole that would've given him the first 60 at DGC.

Still, it was a clean, bogey-free card for Young, 29, who already has won twice this season including at The Players Championship. He was tied with Cantlay, world No. 39 who has won eight times on the PGA Tour, but not in four years.

This season, Cantlay, 34, has three top-10s, but none since May.

"Pretty mediocre so far," Cantlay said of his performance this season, which has included two missed cuts in his last four tournaments. "But golf's funny. You can change your whole season in a week or two.

"I feel like my game's been heading in the right direction and I've been working hard.

"So I'm pretty about optimistic about the end of the season."

Cantlay battled his way through some tough driving on his opening nine — the renovation at Detroit Golf Club has made missed fairways more penal — but salvaged some nice pars, before he getting things cooking on his second nine with three birdies from Nos. 1-5 to tie Young on top. Cantlay also was bogey-free.

The final Rocket Classic sure seems to be going out with a bang. It boasts arguably the best field in the event's history, and the stars are delivering from galleries that are noticeably larger and louder than recent years.

Fowler was off to a hot start in Round 2, with three birdies in his first four holes, and was tied with Young and Cantlay as he made the turn and got it to 11 under with a birdie at the par-4 10th. He then bogeyed the par-3 11th.

Several other big names were within striking distance, too.

Russell Henley, the second-highest-ranked player in the field at No. 5, shot 67 and was at 6 under, along with 2025 U.S. Open champ J.J. Spaun, four shots off of the lead. Spaun also shot a second consecutive 67, though his could've been better Friday. His round hit a big old pothole (hey, that happens in Michigan) with a double-bogey at the par-4 first hole, his 10th of the day.

Jordan Spieth also was at 6 under after a round off 66 that got off to a wild (Spiethian?) start, with just one par on the front nine, to go with five birdies and three bogeys. Spieth, playing in Detroit for the first time, will be around for the weekend as he tries to bolster his points position heading into the PGA Tour playoffs next month.

The playoffs aren't a concern for Young. He's third in points. He wants back in the winner's circle. The guy who wears Major League Baseball's logo on his collar wants to land a big trophy of his own before Monday's trade deadline. He has won three times in less than a calendar year, after years of near-misses chasing that first title.

He has come close at the Rocket before with two top-10s, including a tie for second in 2022.

"You wonder, 'Am I missing something, why is this the way that it is, why is it not working,' all those things," Young said of the long chase for that first title, at last year's Wyndham Championship, where he will defend next week. "But when it goes well, it feels totally the opposite. When it goes well, it feels like you never will play bad again.

"It just comes and goes. You kind of have to be ready for either one. At some point, it's going to get harder and at some point you'll come out of that difficult period and it will feel easy.

"It's kind of just a game of being ready for whatever comes next."

What's coming next in Detroit appears to be a slugfest of the stars, who began the day chasing Peter Malnati, who shot a course record-tying 9-under 61 to start the Rocket. He teed off Friday afternoon and stumbled a bit out of the gate, with three bogeys in his first seven holes.

Young and Malnati tied the course record by total shots (61). Jake Knapp set the record with his 61 in 2025, though that round was 11 under on a par-72 layout, before two par-5s were converted to par-4s this year for a par-70.

Some other notable names were in danger of missing the cut, including world No. 19 Ben Griffin (2 under), world No. 47 Knapp (2 under), two-time Rocket Classic champion Cam Davis (3 over) and this year's U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark (3 over with six holes to play).

Cantlay knows the feeling, a little too well as of late. It's the winning feeling that's eluded him for too long.

"Wins can happen fast. You can get on a run," said Cantlay, who tied with Young for second place at the 2022 Rocket Classic, when Tony Finau ran away and won by five shots. "You've got to believe that's right around the corner."