LOS CABOS (Mexico) — Cameron Young did not miss a step in the World Wide Technology Championship’s first round.
Young shot a 65 on Thursday in his first return to the PGA Tour since being bounced from the FedEx Cup Playoffs after the second event. Young’s regular caddie Paul Tesori was away in Florida, nursing a back problem that may require surgery.
Tesori was good enough to earn a Tour Card before switching to caddying. He worked with Vijay Singh and Sean O’Hair in the past and has spent the last 12 years working for Webb Simpson. They won the 2012 U.S. Open as well as the 2018 Players Championship. They parted ways in late March and Tesori teamed up with Young, the 26-year-old 2022 PGA Tour rookie of the year, who was ranked No. 1 at the time. 17th in the world.
Tesori had X-rays taken of his damaged back discs and his arthritic left knee. He also visited a surgeon to discuss the possibility of a microdiscectomy on Thursday. Meanwhile, Young shot a round without bogeys that puts him in contention for a first Tour title. Caddie David Cook who has been filling in for Simpson during this season, carried the bag at El Cardonal, Diamante. This is one of the most difficult walks on the Tour.
The ruptured disk was worse than he had imagined. The fragment has two levels, so he would have to do it both on the side and on the straight. Tesori told Golfweek that it was more difficult than a microdiscectomy. It’s hard to decide if surgery is the best option. My main question was, “Isn’t surgery the safest way to go?” He answered emphatically that it wasn’t. He wants to have another MRI in a month. He thinks there is a 75% chance that my body will heal the disc, but he doesn’t know when. He’s encouraged because the pain has decreased. He doesn’t really want to do surgery because of his overall back health and the disc.
Tesori, despite the pain, hopes to be on the bag for Young’s start at the RSM Classic. This is the final FedEx Cup Fall tournament, and it’s only a 90 minute drive from Tesori’s home.
He said, “My goal remains to work RSM. I am not sure exactly how this will be done at the moment.”
