Young eyeing his first Masters title: 'It's something I've dreamed of'

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/young-cameron/WAjf7EFq/"]Young[/a] carded an impressive seven-under par 65 on Saturday, his best score in 15 career Masters rounds, giving him a 54-hole total of 11-under par and a solid shot at the biggest title of his career.[/p][p][b]"It's something I've dreamed of doing for a long time,"[/b] said Young, who started the day eight shots off defending champion [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mcilroy-rory/djwanksN/"]McIlroy[/a]'s lead and birdied four of the first eight holes.[/p][p]He rolled in an eight-foot birdie putt at the 10th and produced back-to-back birdies at 13 and 14.[/p][p]A weak wedge found the water at the 15th, but he followed that bogey with a 27-foot birdie putt at the 16th and briefly held the solo lead as McIlroy faltered behind him.[/p][embed guid="a023b08f-5901-4896-b2f3-7d5d3fd1d67b" url="https://x.com/TheMasters/status/2043081292200251866?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]It's not where he expected to find himself when he bogeyed four of the first seven holes on Thursday.[/p][p][b]"If you had said on Thursday at about noon that I was going to be within a couple of the lead going into Sunday, I would have taken it in a heartbeat, especially given the fact that I was watching Rory play," [/b]he said.[/p][p][b]"We saw today that a slow start and a hot start can erase a lot. It's just a matter of keeping myself in it tomorrow and doing the best I can to stay around the lead for as long as possible."[/b][/p][p]But Young is not surprised to be contending after a [b]"slow buildup"[/b] that started with his first PGA Tour title at the Wyndham Championship last August and continued through a strong Ryder Cup showing and a triumph in the Players Championship last month.[/p][p][b]"I feel that I've gotten a lot better at just being present in what I'm doing,"[/b] Young said. [b]"Out here that's so much of the battle.[/b][/p][p][b]"You're going to get good breaks, you're going to get bad ones. You're going to hit a bad shot or two. The ability to just swallow it and move on and go hit your next shot, the emotions of it, the frustration, whatever it may be, I think this place really punishes you if you play angry or impatient."[/b][/p][embed guid="380329c1-3d63-41c7-a715-65ceac22c0c3" url="https://x.com/TheMasters/status/2043073067002343739?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Young has contended in majors before. He has two top-10 Masters showings in the past three years and finished second at the Open Championship in 2022.[/p][p]He knows that momentum can shift in a heartbeat on Augusta's fiery greens.[/p][p]He said he'll draw on those experiences, as well as his recent Players victory, but will go out with the mindset that he has to take the title.[/p][p][b]"My past results don't dictate what I do tomorrow,"[/b] Young said. [b]"While I do feel that there's a lot of positive things to take from those events, I've got to go earn whatever I get out of tomorrow, and the best way that I know to do that is kind of try to attack the day like I have the last three."[/b][/p]