Class of 2028 Boys Preview

6/4 CGC Staff

It’s that time of the year when a new batch of junior golfers becomes eligible for college recruiting on June 15th. We’ve selected a handful of the top Class of 2028 boys to discuss in our preview before that celebratory day on June 15th on which they can finally communicate with college coaches through text, email, and phone conversations. In the classes of 2026 and 2027, there were already established stars who had found immense success on the national level. The class of 2028, with a few clear-cut frontrunners in our points-based rankings system, is slower to develop but also chock-full of talent that’s waiting to be unleashed. Some have had success on the national level, while others have dominated at the regional level and are waiting to showcase their talent on the national stage.

Photo: AJGA

At the top of our list is Floridian Chase Bauer, a golfer who started off the 2026 season with a top-5 at the Dustin Johnson World Junior and a top-10 at the AJGA Simplify Boys Championship. His biggest accolade was at an amateur event, The New Year’s Invitational, in which he finished runner-up. In 2025, Bauer notched an AJGA win and two wins on the Florida Junior Tour. He put his name on the recruiting map by reaching the round of 16 at the 2025 US Junior Amateur.

Photo: AJGA

New Jersey’s Rory Asselta has found his name on leaderboards in the past year, with top-10 finishes at the Junior Jones Cup and the North & South Junior, and top-5 at the 2026 Junior Orange Bowl. He recently notched a top-15 finish at the AJGA Team Taylormade Invitational and had success in 2025 with a top-10 at the Southern Junior. Asselta raised the winner’s trophy at the National High School Invitational and had two AJGA open top-3 finishes.

Photo: The Paper, Morgantown NC

North Carolina’s Grayson Baucom started 2026 with a bang, with a win at the AJGA Simplify Boys Championship and a top-5 finish at the Dustin Johnson. Baucom first made a name for himself with a win at the 2025 Scott Robertson Memorial and followed it with a top-10 at the AJGA Ping Invitational and top-15 at the AJGA Junior Players Championship. He had two AJGA open wins in 2025.

After our top-three, there is a wide gap in points, with six golfers appearing on our list and virtually tied in our rankings. These six athletes include Jaden Soong, Ryan Nana Tanke, Ambrose Kinnare, Zude Xu, Anson Munzlinger, and Karl Stenson. Soong has two AJGA Invitational top-10s and one top-5 finish on his resume. Xu carded two Toyota Tour Cup victories in 2025, while Kinnare has six regional wins in Florida in the past year and a half. Nana Tanke had a recent top-10 at the AJGA Team Taylormade and had an open AJGA win, while Munzlinger had an AJGA open win in 2025. Stenson is another Florida regional golfer who had three wins in 2025 and 2026.