Column: Cameron Young’s win should result in Ryder Cup spot

With his easy victory Sunday at Sedgefield Country Club, Cameron Young didn’t leave any doubt.

Maybe there shouldn’t have been any doubters.

With one round to play at the Wyndham Championship, the tournament’s most-popular topic seemed to be whether Young could win a PGA Tour event. After all, in his 93 previous attempts, he’d finished second seven times without winning.

That really wasn’t fair. Though TV commentators kept bringing up Young’s previous failure to win, they also conceded that he had never taken the lead into the final day, though one loss was in a match-play final to Sam Burns. It should be noted, Young had beaten Rory McIlroy in the semifinals.

Fact is, Young had broken 70 in five of his stroke-play runnerup finishes. He had never been Greg Norman in 1996 at Augusta. Or Jean van de Velde in 1999 at Carnoustie.

The opposite of choking, the former Wake Forest standout had a track record of playing well in the final round.

And he did it again on Sunday at Sedgefield Country Club, cruising to victory and setting a tournament scoring record in the process.

Young’s 22-under-par 258 total — he made meaningless bogeys on 16 and 17 Sunday — tied a Wyndham Championship record at Sedgefield. On several occasions, he led by nine strokes.

Now, the next obvious media question is: When will Young win a major championship? That’s fair. He’s plenty good enough. Granted, Scottie Scheffler and McIlroy weren’t at Sedgefield.

But here’s two more good questions:

Will Young be named to the U.S. Ryder Cup team by captain Keegan Bradley? He should be. Passed over in 2023 for the routed U.S. team when he was ninth on the points list, Young is one of the top 12 American players.

Who is currently the best Wake Forest grad on the PGA Tour? Right now, Young is. But if Will Zalatoris can recover from his back problems, Wake could have two elite Tour players.

It would be a crime for Bradley to pick himself over Young, or any of another five choices.

The best U.S. picks based on the standings going into next week at Memphis: Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin (Nos. 7, 8 and 9) on the points list, Young, Brian Harman and Chris Gotterup.

Need more convincing? Young won the New York State Open at Bethpage Black, the site of the Ryder Cup.

We’re continually told how much time it takes to be a captain, so let Bradley focus on handling that role.

This weekend at Sedgefield, Young showed he could not only win, but dominate. He’d be a great Ryder Cup pick.