Cameron Young arrived at Doral on Thursday, having never played the Blue Monster competitively. He left leading the Cadillac Championship, and the putter deserves most of the credit.

The world No. 4 shot a bogey-free, 8-under 64 in the opening round, one shot clear of Jordan Spieth and Alex Smalley, and is riding momentum from his The Players Championship win six weeks ago.

"I feel like I made a billion feet of putts, which I think works most places," Young said. "It's just one of those days that each mistake I made, I was not penalized as much as I could have been. And every time my ball got near the hole, it seemed to want to go in today."

Young made putts of 41½ and 25 feet and stayed hot even though he hit only 50% of fairways, finishing third in strokes gained around the green and putting with about 98 feet of total putts made. He said the Blue Monster felt easy to play if you stayed away from the water.

"I think you can be pretty aggressive into a lot of the greens," he said. "They're not particularly firm. There's a couple spots where the rough's a little longer, and obviously, there's tons of water out there."

This event is the PGA Tour’s first return to Doral since 2016 after LIV Golf events from 2022 to 2025, so most players, including Young, are seeing the Blue Monster for the first time, while Jordan Spieth has played here before.

Spieth Is One Shot Behind Cameron Young and Three Years Without a Win

Jordan Spieth shot a 7-under 65, his best round this year. He said taking a short mental reset during the round, with help from his caddie, helped him keep playing well.

"Let's pretend we're starting over just to stay aggressive, just kind of seeing holes to make birdies versus seeing holes for how hard they are," Spieth said. "So it was a good strategy."

Spieth chipped in for an eagle on the par-5 eighth hole. He has not won a tournament since 2022, so it has been three years. But his strong start at Doral puts him back in contention.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler made three early birdies but followed with back-to-back bogeys on 10 and 11, finishing at 1-under 71 and outside the top 20 after the first round in six of his last eight events.

"I just wasn't capitalizing on a lot of stuff today," Scheffler said.

Taylor and Echavarria remain in contention heading into the second round of the no-cut tournament.

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Written by

Sneha Abraham

Edited by

Pulkit Prabhav