He shot 2-under-par 70 on Saturday to remain in control through three rounds of the Cadillac Championship at Miami.
Young is up six strokes on a group of three golfers, including world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, at windy Trump National Doral's Blue Monster Course.
"I think I tend to play well at difficult golf courses, difficult setups, difficult conditions," Young said. "This is all of those things. I think it plays into my hands a little bit."
Young, who's at 15-under 201, will be looking for his second victory of the season and the third of his career on the PGA Tour during Sunday's final round.
"I'm sure it will not be as easy as I want it to be," Young said. "Sounds like the weather is not going to be great. It will be a fight from the beginning and just looking to execute the way that I did for the most part today."
The scheduled final-round tee times have been moved up because of a rainy forecast, with the first groups going off at 7:30 a.m. ET.
Scheffler shot 69 to move to second place by the time he finished the third round. He's joined in that position at 9 under by South Korea's Si Woo Kim (69) and Norway's Kristoffer Reitan (69).
"The tournament's in (Young's) hands right now," Scheffler said. "I can go out and have a really good round, and if he has another really good round he's going to be a tough guy to catch."
Young began the round with a bogey on the par-5 first hole but played the next 11 in 3 under.
Scheffler's round was defined by birdies on three of the four par-5 layouts.
"Just gave myself a lot of good looks for birdie," Scheffler said. "I'm hitting it solid, it's just a lot of these holes it's just tough."
Kim said there's no sense in changing strategy at this juncture of the tournament
"I'm just going to play my golf and especially this course is, if you try to force it, I feel like I'm going to shoot 80," Kim said.
Matt McCarty (69), Ben Griffin (68) and Canada's Nick Taylor (72) are at 8 under and tied for fifth place. Taylor bogeyed the final hole.
"Was able to kind of get aggressive when on some of those downwind holes when I could," McCarty said. "I felt like made good committed swings out there all day."
Jordan Spieth took a significant dive, shooting 75 and falling to a tie for 12th at 5 under. He was hurt by two double-bogeys – first on the par-3 fourth hole when he didn't get into putting position until his fourth stroke and then on the 18th when his approach shot went into the water and he was forced to take a penalty.
Australia's Adam Scott had the day's best score with a bogey-free 6-under 66, leaving him at 3 under.
"Happy to put a good round on the board and I feel like I've been playing with better than my scores the first two days, and kind of reassured myself I am today," Scott said.