{"id":20159,"date":"2026-06-13T00:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T00:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/20159\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T00:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T00:11:11","slug":"connecticuts-ben-james-shocks-the-pro-golf-world-by-leading-in-his-first-pga-event-as-a-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/20159\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut’s Ben James shocks the pro golf world by leading in his first PGA event as a pro"},"content":{"rendered":"

CALEDON, Ontario \u2014\u00a0Connecticut native Ben James\u00a0<\/a>is making the most of his PGA Tour\u00a0debut at the\u00a0RBC Canadian Open<\/a>, at least through the halfway point.<\/p>\n

James, from\u00a0Milford,<\/a> a Hamden Hall grad, fired a 7-under 63 on Friday \u2014 tied for the low round of the tournament thus far \u2014 and was the tournament leader at the halfway mark at 10-under par. A group of five players that included Sam Burns, Haotong Li, Keith Mitchell, Jackson Sube and Jesper Svensson were a shot back at 9-under.<\/p>\n

In a group of six players two shots back at 8-under were Tommy Fleetwood, major champion Brooks Koepka and Bud Caulley, who also shot a second-round 63 on Friday.<\/p>\n

James, 23, earned his Tour card by finishing\u00a0No. 1 in the PGA Tour University rankings\u00a0<\/a>after wrapping up a stellar amateur career that included being named a first-team All-American all four years at the University of Virginia. The $9.8 million tournament incudes a first price of $1,764,000.<\/p>\n

He has qualified for the U.S. Open<\/a> for third year jn a row, and will head to Shinnecock Hills after this tournament. He has also received an exemption for the third time to play in The Travelers Championship<\/a>, a Signature Event with a top shelf field, June 25-28 in Cromwell.<\/p>\n

Teeing off at 8:28 a.m. Friday, James went right to work, opening his round with an eagle on the par-5 first hole, then added five birdies and no bogeys over the 7,839-yard TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley course. He eagled the same hole on Thursday on his way to an opening-round 67.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all kind of came together today,\u201d\u00a0James told reporters in Canada via the Golf Channel<\/a>. \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

Jim Benepe is the only player in PGA history to win in his first Tour event as a pro. He won the 1988 Western Open for his lone career win.<\/p>\n

Asked what he thought about playing in a final weekend pairing in his first event, James said, \u201cI\u2019ve\u00a0got no clue, because I\u2019ve never been in this position, so I\u2019m very excited to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s about to find out as he\u2019s officially in the final pairing that will tee off in Saturday\u2019s third round.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALEDON, Ontario \u2014\u00a0Connecticut native Ben James\u00a0is making the most of his PGA Tour\u00a0debut at the\u00a0RBC Canadian Open, at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6054,7725,1453,3232,8399,44,1454,899,1456,8398,54,144],"class_list":["post-20159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ben-james","tag-canadian-open","tag-connecticut","tag-connecticut-news","tag-ct-new","tag-golf","tag-hartford-courant","tag-local-news","tag-max-image-preview","tag-milford","tag-news","tag-pga-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}