GOLF.com: Why Cameron Young's Pause at the Top Is Anything But an Accident

A Career Year Built on Ball Striking

Since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Cameron Young has been one of the tour's elite ball strikers. He's finished inside the top 35 in SG: Off the Tee every season and has cracked the top 15 in SG: Tee to Green twice. In 2026, with his putter finally catching up to his ball-striking prowess, he claimed the Players Championship and posted two top-five finishes in majors.

The Pause Explained

Young's signature move — a subtle hang at the top of his backswing — draws frequent comparisons to Hideki Matsuyama's structured stop. Young, however, sees them as fundamentally different: Matsuyama's pause is deliberate and stiff; Young's emerges organically from how his body moves.

The root cause is his lead arm. Unlike players who maintain a straight left arm at the top, Young's arm naturally bends. To avoid rushing into the downswing with that bent arm — which can introduce errors — he instinctively slows his transition and waits for the arm to fully extend before initiating the downswing. The result, from the outside, looks like a pause.

He's Tried to Change It — And Failed (For Good Reason)

Young has experimented with eliminating the move but notes he's in good company: Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth both carry a bend in the lead arm at the top. What matters is what happens at impact, and by then, his arm is back to full extension.

Strokeslab's Take

Young's elite SG: Off the Tee and SG: Tee to Green numbers validate what his mechanics produce, not what they look like. In the Strokes Gained era, outcome-based mechanics matter more than textbook aesthetics.