Cameron Young is already playing the rollback ball | And his odds just halved

Photo: Daniel Stenholm / Unsplash

So picture this. 17th hole at Quinta da Marinha, in Portugal. Singles match already won, nothing to lose, and I haven't pulled driver out of the bag once all day. Five-iron off every tee like a man trying very hard not to embarrass himself. The lads in the group have clocked it. "Uh oh, he's bringing it out... This ball's going over the next fairway and into the sea!"

But, no... 304 yards. Straight down the pipe. 30 past the 5-handicapper.

(They weren't expecting that. Frankly, neither was I!)

The Portugal trip was four days, three rounds, scores from 107 to 113. Penha Longa had robot mowers (Terminator vibes, honestly). Oitavos Dunes was the clear winner and the greens left us all slightly traumatised. And the smart-golf stuff I've been banging on about since the Claude Harman chat? It worked! Laying up with a ¾ 7-iron from 200 to leave 60-70 in. Saved me strokes I had no right to save.

It's the club medal on Tuesday, too. First handicap round in a while. Stomach already churning 😅

Listen to this week's Both Sides of Par episode →

Ross's countdown putting routine. Stolen, by his own admission, from a podcast (he reckons Mark Immelman with a psychologist, don't quote us).

Here's the shape of it. Stand behind the ball, pick your line, then walk to the ball, counting down from 10. At 5, you're over the ball and you take your practice stroke. 4, 3, 2, 1, one last look at the target, hit. The target isn't the hole, by the way. It's more specific: a point in the cup or a wee mark on the green 3-4 inches from the hole.

The whole point is to stop your brain interfering. You're too busy counting to second-guess yourself. His playing partner reckoned his stroke looked "really relaxed," which is the closest thing to a compliment a Scotsman gets on the greens.

I'm nicking it for Tuesday's medal. Will report back honestly. (It'll probably be a disaster.. I'll lose count on 3 and yip my practice stroke into the ball.)

[Hear more about the detail on this week's pod →] (https://bothpar.com/episode/portugals-fastest-greens-left-us-all-traumatised-plus-ross-170mph-ball-speed)

Cardross GC. Pairs. Saturday 13 June. £35 per head, £70 a pair. Handicap limit 25.8.

Just over the Erskine Bridge, northwest of Glasgow. Ross pitched it as "a little mini Augusta" and reckons he's never heard a single golfer say a bad word about the place. That's a strong reference in a country where complaining about courses is basically a national sport.

Pairs format is the sweet spot for us improvers. You can have a horror hole, your partner picks it up, nobody has to know. (They _will_ know. They'll bring it up at dinner.) Handicap limit 25.8 means it's properly open to the mid-range player, not just the cap-tipping low single brigade.

If you're within driving distance and your Saturday's free, get the entry in.

Photo: Toby Harvey / Unsplash

Oitavos Dunes, Cascais, Portugal.

Right, it's not Scotland. But hear me out. If you've ever stood on a links tee in Ayrshire and thought "this is the stuff," Oitavos will scratch the same itch with sunshine on top. Half inland, half on the water, sandy, fast-running, the sort of ground where a slightly thinned 7-iron actually rewards you for once.

The par 3s are the headline. One plays 20-30 feet down toward the cliffs with bunkers sculpted like something out of a links architect's daydream. Another, about 160 yards (into the wind on the day I played 😱), across a ravine. My playing partners hit stinger 5-irons. I hit a hard 7 and finished 20 feet short, which felt like a moral victory.

The greens, though. Brutal. Tabletops, huge undulations, cut shorter than I've ever seen grass cut in my life. We came off slightly traumatised. Three-putts were the norm. Four-putts were not unusual.

Worth every euro.

Photo: Soheb Zaidi / Unsplash

5kg bouncing med ball. Ross's. About £30. The most boringly effective bit of golf kit I've heard about in months.

The key word is bouncing. Not a dead slam ball, the bouncy version, so you're not stooping to pick it up every rep. Five to ten minutes in the car park 45 minutes before the tee. Half-swing slams, squat-throws between the knees, side-to-side swings behind the head.

The numbers back it up. Ross's 8-iron ball speed used to take ages to work up to 112 mph. Now it opens at 111-112 after the warm-up and gets to 118-120 within 10 swings. Driver carry sitting comfortably at 265-275.

(I'd like 265-275! I'd settle for 245 with the wind assist.)

Worth the £30? Considerably more than another driver shaft you don't need. The thing the Course Addict actually requires isn't another launcher, it's a body that can rotate. Ow, my back...

Cameron Young is already playing the rollback ball. Voluntarily. The thing every tour pro has spent two years insisting will ruin the professional game. He's just... using it. And his PGA Championship odds have dropped from 80-1 to 14-1.

Read that again. I love it - in your _face_ the rest of the tour 😂

The story isn't that he's switched. The story is what his switching does to the rollback panic. The tour set have been telling us for ages that this ball will destroy distance, kill the spectacle, make the game unrecognisable. Meanwhile one of the form players in the world has shrugged, teed it up, and started climbing the betting boards.

I think there's something quietly brilliant in that. Not least because it puts a needle into a debate that's been almost entirely theatre. The pros don't hit it as far because of the gear. They hit it far because they're brilliant. Take 5 yards off the ball and they're still brilliant. Take 5 yards off _your_ ball and... well, you weren't hitting it that far anyway, I'm afraid. Sorry pal...

The other story this week is Rory's pinky toe. He's wearing a half-size-up shoe with a cushion jammed round it. Most relatable injury in major championship history. Every one of us has played 18 with a hot spot, and then blamed our 92 on the blister. Solidarity, Rory.

(Also, lovely to see Reitan do the business at the Truist. Would've been brilliant if Alex Fitzpatrick had held on. A Brit lifting that trophy, and his first tour title, would have been a great story. Not to be. The Norwegian will do nicely as a backup.)

The PGA Championship. The actual big one, finally.

Scheffler is the shortest he's ever been at +385 going for back-to-back. Boring? Maybe. But if you enjoy watching a machine, set your alarm. Rory's at +910 with a sore pinky toe (golf's most relatable injury in years). Spieth's still chasing the career Grand Slam, which is the story that won't die because we don't want it to.

My sleeper: Cameron Young. The man's swinging it well and is doing well with that rollback ball, so what can possibly upset him.

(Morikawa says he doesn't trust his back. Rare honesty. Probably a top-20 finish.)

The scenario: Big par 5. I hook one off the planet, dead left, onto the railway tracks (OB at our place). I can see exactly where it crossed the line. Do I get a drop up there, or trudge back?

The ruling: Trudge. OB is stroke-and-distance. Doesn't matter that you saw it cross. Back to where you played from, add one, hit three.

(The local rule allowing a drop with a two-stroke penalty exists for casual play, but it's an optional local rule and most clubs don't use it. Check your card.)

The take: So you're hitting three from the same spot. Of course you are. Welcome to golf.

Right, that's your lot. Get the Cardross entry in if you can. Try the countdown putting thing on Saturday and report back, ideally with footage of you missing from three feet whilst counting calmly to yourself.

And if you're watching the PGA on the sofa this weekend, spare a thought for Rory's wee toe. We've all been there. A blister, a bad shoe, an 86 that was definitely the foot's fault.

(Hamish, my swing gremlin, sends his regards. He's been quiet since Portugal. I don't trust him.)

Cheers! Colin