Tour record-holder, fast-rising newcomer to duel in final round of Albertsons Boise Open
The man who shot the lowest score in Korn Ferry Tour history and the medalist from a Canadian tour qualifying tournament will duel Sunday at Hillcrest Country Club in the final round of the Albertsons Boise Open.
Stephan Jaeger of Germany continued his outstanding play Saturday with a 6-under 65 for a one-shot lead. He has shot 65, 64 and 65 this week for a 19-under total.
Cameron Young of Scarborough, New York, zipped up the leaderboard with a 61 in Saturday’s third round — pulling within one shot at 18-under.
They’ll play together in the final round at 12:50 p.m. with huge stakes even beyond the $180,000 winner’s check — and no fans, because of the coronavirus pandemic. The final round airs on Golf Channel at 3 p.m.
Brandon Wu, a 23-year-old from Scarsdale, New York, is two shots back at 17-under.
“You miss the claps a little bit,” Jaeger said of the nearly empty Hillcrest. “… I’ve got my wife out here, which is great — they’re allowed to watch and give us some support. And she gives me a clap every once in a while. I’ll take as many as I can tomorrow and see how we finish up.”
Jaeger is a four-time Korn Ferry Tour winner (2016-18) who holds the tour scoring records for 18 holes (58 in 2016) and 72 holes (30-under 250 in 2016). The 31-year-old is 74th on the tour points list this season with only one finish in the top 30 (a tie for third). He recorded six top-25 finishes on the PGA Tour in the 2018-19 season.
In his past three tournaments, he hadn’t carded a score better than 71.
He said it might take all day to try to explain why his game clicked this week.
“This game is weird,” he said. “I’ve obviously kind of struggled the last couple weeks and it just takes … like one or two swings and you’re like, ‘Wait a second.’ ”
Young was supposed to spend this year on the Mackenzie Tour — the Canadian tour where he won a qualifying tournament. But that tour was canceled by the pandemic.
So he’s been searching for playing opportunities, including a handful of Monday qualifiers for Korn Ferry Tour events. He finally got through two weeks ago in Omaha, Nebraska, and tied for 11th in his Korn Ferry debut. That got him into the WinCo Foods Portland Open, where he tied for 14th last week.
Now the 23-year-old out of Wake Forest is in contention for a win that would secure his spot on the Korn Ferry Tour and potentially land him a berth in the U.S. Open, which will be played next month at Winged Foot — not far from Young’s hometown.
“This is a little bit surreal to be sitting here playing in my third event,” Young said, “never mind playing well in that tournament. It’s been a huge step in the right direction.”
The key, he said, is to capitalize on this chance. If he doesn’t, he might be looking for a place to play again soon.
“It’s great to get the chance to play,” he said, “but I really am grinding out to try to get whatever I can out of it, because that’s going to mean a lot in the next year or so.”
This story was originally published August 15, 2020 at 6:36 PM.
