KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Ten months after having no status on the Korn Ferry Tour, Cameron Young will enter Sunday’s final round at the AdventHealth Championship with a chance to become the first wire-to-wire winner on Tour since 2018. After a slow start, Young birdied his final three holes for a 4-under 68 to reach 15-under through three rounds at Blue Hills Country Club and two strokes clear of Dawie van der Walt.

“It is hard, I think that showed in my start today,” said Young. “I made pars on the first nine holes and was probably a bit too complacent. I hit a bunch of mediocre shots to be honest and just wasn’t able to make birdies as easily as I had the last few days.”

Once Young reached the back nine, he tallied five birdies – offset by a lone bogey at the 15th – to keep the field at arm’s length.

“It’s hard to push yourself for 72 holes,” said Young, a Wake Forest University alum. “But there’s times when you can’t. I felt like I didn’t quite have it early and I just wasn’t as comfortable going at flagsticks as I think I had been. I was forced to be a little more conservative and I think I did a pretty good job of it. It was good to make a couple of birdies late and turned it into this advantage.”

Young, who enters the week 70th in the points standings, is the only player during the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour season to earn Special Temporary Membership. After entering the season with zero status, Young Monday qualified into the Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna last July and proceeded to go on a four-tournament stretch that changed his career. He finished T11 that week and earned finishes of T14-T6-T2 over the next three weeks to earn Special Temporary Membership. Young joined Will Zalatoris and Davis Riley (both in 2019) as the only three players to earn Special Temporary Membership over the past two seasons.

Prior to his miracle run, Young was struggling to get starts, especially during a pandemic that shut down various mini tours and Monday qualifiers.

“I had no idea,” said Young of his 2020 plans once the pandemic hit. “I played PGA TOUR Latinoamérica Q-School in January. I played horrible. And then I went to Mackenzie Tour Q-School and happened to play really well and get status there. But then right after that was the height of COVID when everything was shut down. So I really had no idea. And then when it opened back up I played some mini tours and some Monday qualifiers after I knew the Mackenzie Tour was not going to happen. That was tough.”

Young will be attempting to complete a rare feat on Sunday as he goes for the wire-to-wire win. The last wire-to-wire victory on the Korn Ferry Tour (defined as having the solo lead after each round) occurred at the 2018 DAP Championship courtesy of Kramer Hickok, who is now on the PGA TOUR.

“The pressure is definitely different,” said Young when asked to compare the pressure of trying to win to attempting to get into events in August. “This is probably more fun. That stretch in August, I didn’t even know what I was doing. I just knew I had to play well to get in the next week.”

South African Dawie van der Walt, a 38-year-old, will begin the round two strokes back, while UCLA product Lorens Chan sits three strokes off the lead. Chan is seeking his first career top-10 on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Final-round tee times will run from 8:59 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Sunday morning.