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<\/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%;}]]>![\"Get](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781304010_36_image.jpg\")
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Get to know PGA TOUR University No. 1 Ben James before RBC Canadian Open<\/p>\n
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Written by Jay Coffin<\/p>\n
To think, Ben James<\/a> is just trying to get comfortable.<\/p>\n The 23-year-old just completed his senior season at Virginia, qualified for his third U.S. Open on Monday and came to the RBC Canadian Open to make his professional debut after earning status via his standing as the top-ranked player in the PGA TOUR University Ranking.<\/p>\n He came to TPC Toronto not thinking about much of anything. He simply wanted to take this for what it is, his first start in what he hopes is a long, prosperous professional career.<\/p>\n James shot a spectacular 7-under 63 Friday to rush to the top of the leaderboard, topping the likes of Sam Burns<\/a>, defending champion Ryan Fox<\/a> and Brooks Koepka<\/a> who all trail closely behind. James is 10-under total after an opening 67.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t really thinking about really results at all this week,\u201d Jame said. \u201cJust worried about getting comfortable, making new friends and having fun, and just seeing where everything kind of falls. Just seeing where my game stacks up.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, I have some stuff to work on, just trying to see where everything goes. Because this is just the baseline, it\u2019s my first professional debut. Obviously had a great two days, but just trying to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s going to be difficult getting much better than he was during the second round.<\/p>\n The four-time NCAA Division I First-Team All-American opened with an eagle on the par-5 first when he drained a putt from 22 feet. He also eagled that hole on Thursday, playing it as his 10th of the day. \u201cI think that hole just likes me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n *: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%;}]]> The Five: Things to know about rookie Ben James<\/p>\n Five more birdies followed the eagle on Friday, the last coming on the par-5 18th hole via a two-putt. Birdies on Nos. 8 and 12 were both came after laser approach shots hit to 4 feet.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great day,\u201d he said. \u201cIt all kind of came together today, it was just one of those days, the putter was good, hitting fairways, had good numbers, and was able to capitalize on a pretty tricky scoring day.\u201d<\/p>\n This is James\u2019 10th start on the PGA TOUR, but the last came 11 months ago when he missed the cut at the John Deere Classic. He\u2019s made two of nine cuts previously and his best finish is a tie for 33rd place at last year\u2019s Valero Texas Open. He\u2019s played in the U.S. Open twice and will play in his third next week at Shinnecock Hills. Following that he\u2019s earned a sponsor exemption into the Travelers Championship.<\/p>\n But first things first. James has a tournament to try to win. A big one. His first as a professional on the PGA TOUR. He may not have come to Canada thinking about winning, but after 36 holes he\u2019s in a place where that\u2019s no longer the case.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never been in this position, so I\u2019m excited to find out,\u201d James said. \u201cBeing so young, I\u2019m just excited. I have no expectations. I\u2019m going to play the best I can like I did the last two days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3H AGO 3 Min Read Latest *: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%;}]]> Get to know PGA TOUR University No. 1 Ben James before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-635628","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\/635628","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=635628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781304011_235_image.jpg\")
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