The Woodlands, Texas - Bryan Kim of Brookeville, Maryland, and Preston Stout of Richardson, Texas, hold the lead after the second round of the AJGA Simplify Boys Championship at Carlton Woods at 8-under-par 136.
The AJGA Simplify Boys Championship at Carlton Woods is one of the longest-running events on the AJGA schedule. Originally played in 1987, the tournament settled at The Club at Carlton Woods in 2009. The event has a storied past with champions such as Jim Furyk, Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth.
Kim, who held a share of the first-round lead, continued his consistent play with four birdies and a bogey to shoot a second-round 3-under-par 69. He got off to a hot start with birdies on three of his first four holes before shooting even par for the remainder of his round. The 2023 grad is No. 6 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and is coming off a T6 finish at the Rolex Tournament of Champions in November. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play college golf at Duke University in the fall.
"I was struggling to make putts today, but then I got to No. 18. I hit a stinger 3-wood right to the middle of the fairway then hit my 5-iron to about 20 feet above the hole. Then I rolled that putt in to end the round on a high note. I've been knocking at the door for the past year or so. I've gotten a lot of top 10s in Invitationals so it would mean a lot to finally get it done, especially early in the season."
Stout started the day outside the top 10 after a first-round 1-under-par 71. He quickly made up ground however, carding seven birdies on the day and completing one of the only bogey-free rounds of the tournament so far. Stout hit every fairway and green on the way to a tournament-best 7-under-par 65. Stout is currently No. 10 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and has signed a National Letter of Intent to play college golf at Oklahoma State University in the fall.
"I gave myself a lot of looks with some good approach shots so that made the round pretty easy to score. I'm pretty much thinking about the same thing going into tomorrow. I've hit it well both days, so I'm going to try and do the same thing as today and hit fairways and hit greens. I'm going to try and take the stress off my short game and we will be good."
Sitting one stroke behind Kim and Stout are Wheaton Ennis of Eagle, Idaho, and Kush Arora of Pleasanton, California, at 7-under-par 137. In fifth place is Ethan Fang of Plano, Texas, at 6-under-par 138 and in a tie for sixth at 5-under-par 139 sit Nicolas Dominguez Alvarez of (Mexico) Wintergarden, Florida, Boston Bracken of Saint George, Utah, Nicholas Gross of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, Henry Guan of Dallas, Texas, Jay Leng Jr. of San Diego, California, Jake Maggert of The Woodlands, Texas, Aaron Pounds of The Woodlands, Texas, and Tyler Loree of Kula, Hawaii.
The final round is on Monday with tee times off Nos. 1 & 10 from 8:30 a.m. - 10:20 a.m.