Young posted an adventurous 1-under 70 in the morning, with only 8 pars. He took bogeys on two of his first five holes, before nabbing an eagle on the 505 yard par-5 7th. Birdies on Nos. 9, 11, and 13 got him to 3-under, but three bogeys and a birdie coming in gave most of that back.
His afternoon scorecard, however, would make you wonder what Young -- a recent Fordham Prep grad heading to Wake Forest this Fall -- had for lunch.
Whatever it was, it worked. He must have ordered the "no bogey" plate.
Two birdies on the front, against no bogeys took him out in 2-under and three straight birdies on Nos. 14-16 (one of those a 466 yard par-4) got him to 5- under on the day. With no bogeys, Young's 66 was just what he needed to push him well clear of his nearest competitor, Stewart Hagestad.
“It was definitely one of the best rounds of my life,” remarked Young to the Met Golf Association.
“I got off to a solid start, and didn’t make too many mistakes,” the victor continued. “The big difference between the last round and the first couple of rounds was putting. I made a couple more putts today and that definitely helped a lot.”
Young's tournament total was 7-under 206 against Hagestad's very respectable 2-under 211.
Four players tied for third at even-par 213: Ryan Snoufer (Panther Valley); Erick Alonso (White Beaches); recent Connecticut State Am champ Evan Grenus (Sterling Farms); and Jared Mactus (Paramount).
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George
Zahringer
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Senior Met Section legend George Zahringer (who won his first Met Section Senior Amateur in May) had a top-10 finish at 4-over 217, while Ken Bakst, managing partner of Friar's Head, put up 6-over 219. Both Zahringer and Bakst are past U.S. Mid-Am champions.
EDITOR'S NOTE
Last summer, Young advanced to the Quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur. Check out his acceleration through the ball in this Vine video posted in April by Lance Ringler of Golfweek. His ball clubhead speed is 117, and ball speed 177!