NAPA, Calif. — Bethpage Black is a big ballpark on Long Island that made the boy feel even smaller. He was holding his father’s hand on Father’s Day in 2002 as they watched the U.S. Open won by Tiger Woods.
It was Cameron Young’s first glimpse of golf at the highest level.
He was 5 years old, already hitting a pyramid stack of range balls until his tiny hands were sore, able to send a wedge shot into a 55-gallon drum from 30 yards away.
Young has a much clearer memory of the day in 2013 when the PGA of America announced golf’s rowdiest event, the Ryder Cup, would be played in 2025 at Bethpage Black with its notoriously loud New York fans who felt ownership of the state-owned course in Farmingdale on Long Island.
By then he was a junior in high school, good enough and old enough to dream, even if it felt so far away.