Cameron Young wins first PGA Tour title after switching to prototype Titleist golf ball

USA Today

2 days ago

Cameron Young made a quiet pre-tournament switch to a prototype Titleist ball—and earned his first PGA Tour win.
Cameron Young didn't arrive at Sedgefield Country Club planning to shake things up, but some fine-tuning and quiet experimentation with the team at Titleist, he made a decision before the start of the Wyndham Championship that helped deliver something he'd been chasing for years: his first PGA Tour win.
Young's victory at the 2025 Wyndham Championship didn't come out of nowhere—he's been piling up close calls for the better part of three seasons—but the way it unfolded made one thing clear. Something clicked. And part of what clicked was a new golf ball.
Young switched from the Pro V1 Left Dot he'd been playing into a prototype version of the Pro V1x—a change that came after a visit to the company's test facility in Massachusetts.
'It's just a tiny bit different,' Young said after the win. 'But I think it definitely contributed to some of the good play this week.'
That good play included leading the field in Strokes Gained: Putting at more than 10 shots gained, driving it nearly 333 yards on average (second in the field), and ranking in the top five in Scrambling. He also hit 79 percent of his greens in regulation. In short: he was locked in.
But none of that was guaranteed on Tuesday morning.
That's when Young, warming up on the range, asked to hit a few balls with the new prototype ball. He brought a few onto the course with him for a nine-hole practice round, accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist director of tour research and validation. Hitting shots side-by-side with his usual gamer, by the second hole, Young stopped switching. He played the rest of the round with the prototype, and on Wednesday, he asked Titleist to put a dozen in his locker.
The change wasn't dramatic. The new ball flew a little differently, launched a touch higher, and—crucially—helped manage spin, which has always been a key concern for Young.
'I've always been a super high spin person,' Young said Sunday evening. 'I hit it hard, and I hit down on it a lot, and that just generates spin, so it's just trying to manage that.'
One shot during the Tuesday round stood out. On the par-3 seventh, Young pulled a 6-iron—a club he doubted could reach the flag with his old ball—and hit it flush. It landed right next to the pin. 'Remarkable,' was his reaction, according to Pitts.
By Sunday, Young was hoisting the trophy after the most complete performances of his career. Whether it was the new ball, the course fit, or simply timing, something unlocked.
For a player who's come close so many times, the change didn't need to be dramatic. It just needed to be right.