Cameron Young’s Bay Hill connection runs deep at Arnold Palmer Invitational

ORLANDO, Fla. – To Cameron Young, Bay Hill Club and Lodge was his version of the Emerald City and Arnold Palmer was like meeting the Wizard of Oz. His family lived just across the street from the famed club, no more than a mile away, around the 150-yard mark on the 15th hole at Orange Tree Country Club. 

“It’s this kind of mystical place, in a sense,” he said of Arnie’s Place. “I’ve always loved it and always happy to come here and get to play.”

Young’s play would have impressed the course owner, whose fingerprints are all over its design. Young shot 5-under 67 at Bay Hill on Saturday, including four birdies in a row to start the back nine and climbed within four strokes of overnight leader Daniel Berger, who was on 16 when play was suspended due to darkness. After equaling his best score in 17 rounds at Bay Hill, Young sits T-3 and if there is a sentimental favorite to root for to make a charge, it might be the Wake Forest product who said his mom originally bought a place at Orange Tree in 1979 and remembers riding his bicycle to watch Tiger Woods play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational pro-am when he was nine or 10 years old. 

“I remember being right behind him on the 3rd tee, like close enough that I probably could have reached out and like touched his club going back,” he said.

Young, 28, went to Dr. Phillips Elementary, the local school, until the fifth grade when he began to be home-schooled. By the time he was 17, he was sending driver off the roof of the shed at Orange Tree some 290 yards in the distance. Young was good enough to earn a scholarship to Wake Forest, the alma mater of Palmer. Young, however, settled for the Lanny Wadkins Scholarship as the Arnold Palmer Scholarship was earmarked for teammate Will Zalatoris. [Young’s caddie, Kyle Sterbinksy, is a former teammate at Wake Forest too.] Nevertheless, Young, winner of the 2021-22 Arnold Palmer Award as the Tour’s Rookie of the Year, declared it would be “special” to win at The King’s castle and earn his second career victory.

“There’s tons of reasons that this tournament is special. That Wake Forest connection to Arnold being one of them, for sure,” he said. “I looked up at his statute going to practice every day at school. He had a tremendous influence on golf in general, and at Wake Forest. So, yeah, it definitely is a very, very clear meaning in my head of what this tournament represents and what he represents. Yeah, it would be a huge honor to even have a chance.”