Cameron Young accomplished more than most rookies can envision on the PGA Tour last year.

He was runner-up at The Open Championship and placed third at the PGA Championship. He pocketed more than $6.5 million in earnings and earned rookie of the year honors. He was a member of the winning United States Presidents Cup team. 

However, there was one notable item missing from the 26-year-old’s resume: A victory. 

Still chasing that elusive win, Young positioned himself nicely Thursday at TPC Deere Run with a 6-under 65 on a sun-splashed day. He’s three shots off the pace set by Swede Jonas Blixt. 

“I would say (winning) is something that I want to achieve, but it’s not something that I go to bed thinking about that bothers me,” Young said. “If you look back, all of my good finishes, none of those tournaments were right there in my hands and I threw them away. 

“All of those I just played pretty well and somebody beat me. It wasn’t like I had a two-shot lead and didn’t win or something.”

The highest ranked player in this week’s field at No. 19 in the Official World Golf Rankings, Young strung together several good finishes in the spring — runner-up at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and T7 at the Masters. 

Since then, Young has struggled to put himself in position for the weekend. 

His 65 was his best opening round of the calendar year. It was also his first competitive round at Deere Run. 

“I played well, and definitely got more out of it than I have been previously,” Young said. “It is encouraging to see some things go my way. I’ve done some good things, but I haven’t had the finish to show for it.”

Young had his best putting round of the season statistically, finishing with a 3.234 strokes gained. He made putts of 10, 13, 17 and 20 feet, respectively, for birdie in his round. He also chipped in from the rough for birdie at the par-4 14th. 

“I’ve been working on some nice things and to see some putts go in today was really encouraging,” Young said. “I haven’t seen that in a while.”

There were a few imperfections. 

He skulled his first chip shot off the green at the 14th and said he hit the worst 5-iron he’s played since he was 12 years old. 

“It was nice,” Young said, “to get away with those things.”