{"id":613836,"date":"2026-05-31T15:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/613836\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T15:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:05:11","slug":"pga-tour-university-no-1-ben-james-opens-with-4-under-68-at-ncaa-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/613836\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA TOUR University No. 1 Ben James opens with 4-under 68 at NCAA Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

22H AGO<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

2 Min Read<\/p>\n

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PGA TOUR University<\/p>\n

<\/a>*:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]>\"University<\/p>\n

University of Virginia men\u2019s golf team competes in worst-ball putting challenge<\/p>\n

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A<\/p>\n

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Written by Staff <\/p>\n

CARLSBAD, Calif. \u2013 Virginia senior Ben James opened with a 4-under 68 at the NCAA Championship and remains in a strong position to finish No. 1 and earn his PGA TOUR card when the Class of 2026 PGA TOUR University Ranking<\/a> is finalized on Monday. San Diego senior Ian Maspat (PGA TOUR U No. 60), Arizona State junior Connor Williams and Alabama sophomore William Jennings shot rounds of 6-under 66, and they share a one-stroke lead entering Saturday\u2019s second round at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.<\/p>\n

James started the week 61 points ahead of Texas senior Christiaan Maas (No. 2), who carded a first-round 76. Should James finish the season atop PGA TOUR University, he would join Florida State\u2019s John Pak (2021) as the only players to be ranked No. 1 every week during his senior season. James\u2019 teammate Bryan Lee (No. 17) shot a first-round 71 as the No. 4-ranked Cavaliers are T10 at even par.<\/p>\n

For the No. 3-ranked Longhorns, Luke Potter (No. 4) paced Texas with a 4-under 68, while Tommy Morrison (No. 5) recorded a 3-under 69. Maas was the fourth counting score for Texas, who are T6 with a team total of 1-under.<\/p>\n

No. 30 UCLA tops the team leaderboard at 8-under, followed by No. 1 Auburn at 4-under. Jackson Koivun finished T2 (2024) and T4 (2025) in his previous two starts at the NCAA Championship, and the Auburn junior is T15 after a first-round 70. Koivun earned his PGA TOUR card last season via PGA TOUR University Accelerated<\/a> and is eligible to accept membership at the end of the collegiate season.<\/p>\n

Louisiana\u2019s Malan Potgieter qualified as an individual by winning the Athens Regional, and that victory moved him to No. 27 in PGA TOUR University. Needing to finish 19th or better in order to have a chance to move into the top 25 and earn PGA TOUR Americas membership, Potgieter opened with a 4-under 68 and is T5 through 18 holes.<\/p>\n

After the final round of stroke play on Monday, June 1, the Class of 2026 PGA TOUR University Ranking will be finalized, with the top 25 players earning membership on the PGA TOUR (No. 1), Korn Ferry Tour (Nos. 2-10) or PGA TOUR Americas (Nos. 11-25).<\/p>\n

PGA TOUR U finish2026 membershipFirst event as a memberNo. 1PGA TOURRBC Canadian Open (June 11-14)Nos. 2-10Korn Ferry TourOccuNet Classic presented by Amarillo National Bank (June 11-14)Nos. 11-25PGA TOUR AmericasBlue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Wichita Open presented by Syndeo (June 25-28)<\/p>\n

PGA TOUR University class of 2026<\/p>\n

Projections after first round of NCAA Championship<\/p>\n

Projected rankOfficial rankPlayerUniversityR1 NCAA Championship11Benjamin JamesVirginiaT522Christiaan MaasTexasT10034Luke PotterTexasT543Jase SummyOklahomaT5658Filip JakubcikArizonaT565Tommy MorrisonTexasT976William SidesSMUDNQ87Mahanth ChirravuriPepperdineT15910Frankie HarrisSouth CarolinaDNQ109Wells WilliamsVanderbiltT561111Michael Alexander MjaasethArizona StateT561214Lance SimpsonTennesseeT351312Tom FischerOle MissT1001413Paul ChangVirginiaT1391515Cameron TankersleyOle MissT561616Matthew KressFloridaT351717Bryan LeeVirginiaT251818Zachery PolloArizonaT351919Daniel Sv\u00e4rdNorthwesternDNQ2027Malan PotgieterLouisianaT52120Brady SiravoPepperdineT352223Mesa FalleurNew MexicoDNQ2321Garrett EndicottMississippi StateT742424Ethan EvansDukeT252522Cohen TrolioOle MissT130<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"22H AGO 2 Min Read PGA TOUR University *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]> University of Virginia men\u2019s golf team competes in worst-ball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-613836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}