Cameron Champ thriving while balancing fatherhood and TOUR career
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Cameron Champ’s son, Beckham, is just 10 weeks old. And as any new parent know, there’s a lot of learning that goes into that first stretch.
“It’s been a blessing,” Champ said, “it’s also been learning how to run on two or three hours of sleep.”
“Brings a different perspective on things. Right now, it's been fun. It's been tiring, but I think all the positives oversee all the negatives that come with a newborn. Yeah, we're excited just to see him grow and see what happens.”
Through three rounds at the Sanderson Farms Championship, Champ is leaning into some of that newfound perspective to climb the leaderboard. He fired a 7-under 65 Saturday and sits tied for sixth after 54 holes.
Champ’s 7-under effort was tied for the low round of the day with a fellow past champion of this event, Scott Stallings. He trails leader Ben Griffin by five shots heading into Sunday’s finale.
Griffin has a three-shot advantage over Carl Yuan, while Stallings, Henrik Norlander, and Luke List are at 16 under and tied for third.
Champ, who has two top-10 finishes on the season but none since April, made four birdies on his front nine and added three more on the back side. He went bogey free on Saturday and sits first in strokes gained: off the tee for the week and eighth in strokes gained: putting.
On the season Champ is 173rd in strokes gained: putting, so this week has been a nice turnaround.
Cameron Champ holes putt for birdie at Sanderson Farms
“Today I felt like the iron play was a little bit better and even when I got out of position I was able to get it on the green,” Champ said. “Then I’ve been putting well.
“I think everything today kind of came together. It was nice and smooth. Like I said, I just felt like I had control of my ball, and then on the greens I've been confident.”
Champ’s first career TOUR title came at The Country Club of Jackson in 2018 when he defeated Corey Conners by four shots. It’s no surprise that Champ loves the golf course.
“Obviously if I can drive it well here, it definitely sets me up, and I've been able to do that so far,” Champ said. (Tomorrow) if I kind of go about my day like I did today, we’ll just see where I stand after.”
Cameron Champ pitches it close to yield birdie at Sanderson Farms
A three-time winner on the PGA TOUR, Champ hasn’t found the winner’s circle since the 3M Open in 2021. Coming into the week, he sits 143rd in the FedExCup standings. He said his intention through the balance of the FedExCup Fall is just to keep playing as much as he can. With just a few weeks remaining he’s trying to keep it simple – staying within himself and playing his own game will be key.
And trying to get a few extra hours of sleep where possible.
“I think I’m in a good space right now. The game has been good. It’s just a matter of allowing myself to be able to play and kind of just get out of my way,” Champ said. “This week it’s been a nice fresh kind of start and (if I) just try to play my game and I know if I do that, I’ll be perfectly fine.
“This game is already hard enough, so we definitely don’t need to make it harder on ourselves.”