Cameron Young arrived at Quail Hollow Country Club this week as one of the hottest names on the PGA Tour, having captured the Cadillac Championship just seven days earlier. By the close of Saturday's third round at the Truist Championship, the American had vaulted himself firmly back into title contention with an 8-under 63 — yet walked off the 18th green knowing he had let a slice of history slip through his fingers.
Young played his first 16 holes in 9-under, putting Rory McIlroy's course record of 61 squarely within reach. A missed birdie on the par-3 17th and a wayward drive on the 18th — which produced his only bogey of the day — clipped a stroke off what could have been a record-tying card.
"I know the record was 10 under and I knew I was at nine," Young said.
The round still rocketed him from outside the top 20 to solo third on a leaderboard that has shuffled wildly through three days at the venue that will host the 2027 PGA Championship. Young sits at 12-under 201, two strokes adrift of England's Alex Fitzpatrick, who carded a steady 67 to reach 14-under 199.
Fitzpatrick, the younger of the Fitzpatrick brothers, is suddenly chasing his maiden PGA Tour title only a fortnight after he and brother Matt earned their cards together at the Zurich Classic. A win on Sunday would complete one of the more remarkable two-week stretches of the year and confirm Aronimink-bound Fitzpatrick as a player to watch at next week's PGA Championship.
"Just over the moon about that," he said of contending for a PGA Tour title in his first season.
The rest of the chase pack contains the kind of names that turn a Sunday into a heavyweight fight. Denmark's Nicolai Højgaard and South Korea's Sungjae Im share fourth at 10-under, with reigning U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun, Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood lurking another stroke back at 9-under.
For McIlroy, the man whose name still owns the Quail Hollow record book, Saturday represented one of the more painful days of his Masters-winning year. The four-time major champion shot a 4-over 75 at a course where he has been almost untouchable in the past, dropping 13 shots behind the lead and out of contention.
Young now turns his attention to a 24-hour window in which he can become the third multiple winner of the 2026 PGA Tour season. He has not won back-to-back starts before, and Fitzpatrick — playing with the freedom of a man with nothing to lose — is unlikely to fold easily. With another 63 in the locker for either chaser, McIlroy's record could yet fall before the trophy is lifted.