{"id":700783,"date":"2026-06-13T01:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T01:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/700783\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T01:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T01:19:11","slug":"newly-minted-pro-ben-james-vaults-into-lead-at-rbc-canadian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/700783\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly minted pro Ben James vaults into lead at RBC Canadian Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

As his PGA Tour-bound peer Jackson Koivun was announcing his professional plans<\/a> to the world, Ben James was already at work.<\/p>\n

James, the 23-year-old University of Virginia product who earned his PGA Tour card by finishing No. 1 in this year\u2019s PGA Tour University class, teed off at 8:28 a.m. ET Friday at TPC Toronto in Caledon, Ontario, site of this week\u2019s RBC Canadian Open. About a half hour later, Koivun, who just wrapped his junior season at Auburn by leading the Tigers to a second NCAA title and again sweeping national player of the year honors, posted that he would be joining James on Tour in a couple weeks, activating his card earned through PGA Tour U\u2019s Accelerated program.<\/p>\n

Much is expected of Koivun, the world\u2019s top-ranked amateur.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t forget about James, who reminded us Friday why he \u2013 and not Koivun \u2013 is one of just five college players to ever garner first-team All-America status all four years.<\/p>\n

James fired a 7-under 63 to vault to 10 under and into the lead through two rounds of his first start as a PGA Tour member. A prolific ball-striker, particularly off the tee, James began his day with an eagle at the par-5 first, the second time in as many rounds he\u2019s eagled the hole, hitting his second shot 220 yards to 22 feet and getting the putt to drop. He added five more birdies and no bogeys as he sits a shot clear of Sam Burns, Haotong Li, Jesper Svensson, Keith Mitchell and Jackson Suber, the latter of whom played alongside James and Neal Shipley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all kind of came together today,\u201d James said. \u201cIt 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

A little more background on James: The Milford, Connecticut native verbally committed to UConn at just 11 years old before developing into one of the top juniors on the AJGA circuit, up there with Nick Dunlap, Caleb Surratt and Luke Clanton. James won the Phil Mickelson Award as the nation\u2019s top freshman in 2023, but he then lost his game and confidence that summer. He retreated to a log cabin in Linville, North Carolina, set in the Blue Ridge Mountains and where there are fewer than 300 people, in hopes of a total reset. James returned at the U.S. Amateur and made the quarterfinals, then helped the U.S. win the Walker Cup at St. Andrews; he\u2019d go on to make the 2025 team as well. Starting with that U.S. Amateur, James finished 12th or better in 32 of his final 39 amateur and college tournaments, including a senior season for the Cavaliers where he cracked the top 5 in every start until a T-16 at the NCAA Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t really thinking about really results at all this week,\u201d James 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. Obviously, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

James is also into next week\u2019s U.S. Open after getting through final qualifying, plus the Travelers Championship on a sponsor exemption the following week. He\u2019ll have full status through next season.<\/p>\n

As for the weekend in Canada, James isn\u2019t sure what to expect should he find himself in the final group on Saturday and\/or Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got no clue,\u201d James said, \u201cbecause I\u2019ve never been in this position, so I\u2019m very excited to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"RBC<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Third-round tee times and TV times for the PGA Tour\u2019s RBC Canadian Open at TPC Toronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As his PGA Tour-bound peer Jackson Koivun was announcing his professional plans to the world, Ben James was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-700783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}