A complete overhaul at TPC Craig Ranch hasn’t deterred the top-tier talent of the PGA Tour from dominating the course during the 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson. The relentless assault continued on Friday, with Si Woo Kim carding an impressive 60, catapulting him to a commanding five-stroke advantage.
Kim has been enjoying an exceptional 2026 season and is renowned for his bold approach on the PGA Tour. This potent mix of form and fearlessness in targeting pins on a receptive and navigable course created the ideal conditions for success. Kim’s round took off with six birdies on the front nine, finishing with a 30, making the elusive 59 seem feasible given the scores already posted in the second round.
Maintaining such momentum after the turn is one of golf’s toughest challenges, yet Kim managed to sustain his aggressive play. He added five birdies in the first six holes of the back nine, reaching 11-under through 15 holes on the par-71 course. Just one more birdie in the final three holes would place him among the rare few.
Following an excellent drive and solid approach on the 16th, Kim’s birdie putt narrowly missed the left edge, keeping him at 11-under. The 132-yard par-3 17th presented a prime opportunity, but adrenaline seemed to take over, as his pitching wedge shot sailed long, settling on the edge of the fairway. From there, he executed a perfect downhill putt to reach 12-under with one hole remaining.
With that crucial birdie, Kim needed merely a par on the final hole to record the 16th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history, while a birdie could have tied Jim Furyk’s record for the lowest round ever. However, fate had other plans. After a precise drive, Kim faced a 200-yard approach with a 6-iron. Similar to his previous shot on 17, he overhit it slightly long and left, creating a challenging up-and-down scenario.
His chip shot was executed a bit too precisely, checking short of the hill, and his par putt slipped by on the low side, leaving him with a bogey to finish at 60. Although an 11-under round is no small feat, Kim might lament the missed opportunity to cement his name in the history books. Nevertheless, he enters the weekend with a substantial five-shot lead at 18-under, aiming for his fifth career victory and first since 2023.
Kim’s 134 (64-60) is tied for the second-lowest 36-hole score in PGA Tour history, trailing only Justin Thomas’s 133 at the 2017 Sony Open — and tied with Scottie Scheffler last year for the lowest in tournament history.
While Kim has opened up a sizable lead, given the names chasing him, most notably including Scheffler, there won’t be any time this weekend to try and coast to a victory in his adopted home of Texas. Weather will be a factor on the weekend, with Saturday’s third round tee times being moved up with players going off in threesomes off split tees due to projected inclement weather in the afternoon, and Kim will have to battle the elements, himself and some stiff competition behind him to capture that fifth career victory.
Weekend contenders
T2. Scottie Scheffler, Sungjae Im, Wyndham Clark, Kensei Hirata (-13)
T6. Jordan Spieth, Keith Mitchell, Tony Finau, Tom Hoge, Jackson Suber Tyler Duncan (-12)
T12. Taylor Moore, Zach Bouchou, Chan Kim, Seamus Power (-11)
T16. Brooks Koepka and six others (-10)
It’d be hard to draw up a much better leaderboard going into the weekend than this at the Byron Nelson. Just about every big name that is in the field is in serious contention after two rounds of play.
Scheffler and Kim play a lot together in Dallas and seemed right at home paired together (along with Brooks Koepka) in the first two rounds. Scheffler was able to draft a bit off Kim’s incredible play on Friday, catching fire himself on the back nine with three birdies and an eagle in a four-hole stretch from No. 11 to No. 14 to surge into a share of second with a 63. Scheffler will spend the weekend trying to break out of his runner-up streak, as he’s finished second in three of his last four events, but he will need something special on the weekend to reel in Kim.
Sungjae Im and Jordan Spieth played the role of Kim and Scheffler in the early wave, with Im closing out his round in style by making a hole-in-one on the 7th and then an eagle on the 9th after starting the day on the back nine.
That flurry to close got Im into the clubhouse with a 10-under 61, besting Spieth’s 9-under 62 in the same pairing. Those two surged into the top 10 with their efforts in the second round and head into the weekend looking to snap lengthy winning droughts. Im hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2021, while Spieth is still chasing his first win since he picked up the 13th victory of his career back in 2022. Both have been trending in the right direction of late, but they also have struggled with putting together four complete rounds to truly give themselves a chance at a victory.
Koepka was the story from the first round. After somehow managing to shoot 8 under despite missing 11 fairways in his first round, he wasn’t so lucky on Friday and watched Kim and Scheffler dart past him on the leaderboard. His 2-under 69 was still good enough to keep him in the top 20, but he’s now eight shots behind Kim and three shots behind Scheffler heading into the weekend. While the rough this week isn’t much of a penalty, Koepka found a few too many fairway bunkers and left himself some poor angles that kept him from keeping pace with his playing companions.
The tournament inside the tournament
The cut line this week didn’t capture many notables in the field — although, a 6 under cut is rather incredible to look at — but the drama outside those at the very top chasing Kim is the effort of Blades Brown, who turned 19 years old on Thursday, trying to earn special temporary exempt status this week. Brown has been playing some great golf this year and after a top 10 at Myrtle Beach two weeks ago, he earned his spot in the field and needs a solo 21st finish or better to get exempt for the rest of the season — which means he can take unlimited sponsor exemptions. That’s a huge deal for a young player, and after two rounds of play, Brown is T38 at 8 under for the week. He’ll need to pile up the birdies as the weekend wears on if he’s going to climb into that top 20 conversation to earn status.
Updated 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson odds, picks
- Si Woo Kim (2/3)
- Scottie Scheffler (13/5)
- Jordan Spieth (20-1)
- Sungjae Im (25-1)
- Wyndham Clark (25-1)
- Keith Mitchell (33-1)
The things working in Kim’s favor this week are the fact that he’s as aggressive as it gets when trying to make birdies on a golf course that invites and rewards that kind of play. He’s also comfortable playing with Scheffler (and Spieth), which is a good thing given he very well could find himself in a final pairing on Sunday with the World No. 1. The bad news is Scheffler loves playing with Kim too, as they feed off each other and typically when that happens, Scottie ends up getting the better of it. I think at this point, even facing a five-shot deficit, my money would be on Scheffler — who is in second going into the weekend but now has longer odds than when the tournament started. The heart says Spieth or Kim, but the head says Scheffler.
