Cameron Younger’s putter was as scorching because the Dubai summer season climate.
The 26-year-old American leaned on his flat stick Friday to card one of many lowest rounds of the Hero Dubai Desert Traditional to this point, an 8-under 64. He leads the match by three photographs over Englishman Andy Sullivan and Adrian Meronk of Poland going into the weekend.
“I putted improbable. I made a few lengthy ones yesterday after which made a couple of extra at this time that these had no proper getting into,” Younger stated.
“I hit a bunch of fine putts, however simply a type of days the place you will have a few 30-footers, and also you lookup, and they’re going proper within the center, which doesn’t occur all that usually to have a bunch of them in a single spherical. Nevertheless it was very nice and I putted nice.”
Having began on the tenth tee, Younger’s first birdie of the day got here on the par-4 twelfth, the place he rolled it in from 19 toes.
He continued to benefit from the again 9 on the Majlis Course on the Emirates Membership—the simpler of the 2 sides. Younger made a birdie on the par-5 thirteenth, then completed his opening 9 with three straight par-breakers on the sixteenth, seventeenth, and 18th.
Younger was on a roll, making the flip at 10-under for the match and 5-under on the day.
“I’m doing a extremely good job of… staying out of my very own approach,” Younger defined. “I noticed it was going effectively early, however the again 9, on the identical time, it seems like it is best to do this to some extent, particularly within the morning with not a lot wind.”
Then, on the par-4 1st, essentially the most difficult gap on the golf course, Younger ripped a drive down the center of the green, knocked his second shot 15 toes immediately over the flat stick, and confidently rolled it in for a birdie. The primary has solely yielded eight birdies this week, by far the bottom of any gap.
He was dialed in, and the stats reveal that as effectively. He leads the sector in total strokes gained and strokes gained approaching the inexperienced.
“I simply performed actually solidly on the again 9 after which made a putt on 1, Younger stated.
“Impulsively, [I was on fire]. Simply a type of days that they stored getting into, and I didn’t make too many errors.”
Younger made three extra birdies on the third, 4th, and seventh holes, the latter two approaching par-3s. He caught his tee photographs inside 10 toes on each of these holes.
And but, Younger’s spherical was not utterly excellent. His large blemish of the day got here on the tough par-4 ninth, a gap that snakes round a big physique of water. However his second shot discovered the underside of the lake and thus needed to accept bogey.
Nonetheless, Younger walked off the golf course with a large lead going into Saturday’s third spherical. Ought to his putter keep scorching, no one will have the ability to catch him.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By. Make sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.
