Virginia’s Ben James keeps rolling, this time wins Valero to earn PGA Tour start

Last summer, Ben James was experiencing some of his worst golf.

Now, he’s playing some of his best.

James won the Valero Texas Collegiate on Monday, firing a closing 6-under 66 at TPC San Antonio to tie Auburn sophomore Josiah Gilbert at 12 under. James then topped Gilbert in a playoff to earn an exemption into next year’s Valero Texas Open.

James began the final round trailing Gilbert by five shots. He bogeyed his first hole of the day, too. But James then rattled off seven birdies in his last 13 holes, including at the par-5 18th, where James hit 3-wood from 260 yards to 10 feet and two-putted to force extra holes.

In the playoff, James hit an even better shot – 3-wood from 267 yards to 7 feet – and his second two-putt at the last sealed his spot in the April 3-6 Tour event at the same course. James already owns six Tour starts to date, including last week’s Procore Championship and this year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, where he made his first cut (T-44).

James has been on a tear since the end of last summer. After winning five times as a freshman, James went through a slump that lasted several months, and he hit rock bottom at last year’s Western Amateur, where he tied for 142nd. After that finish, James retreated to a log cabin in Linville, North Carolina, a small resort community in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He was driving it unusually poor and putting more pressure on his shaky putting, but most importantly, he had lost some joy.

“Just wanted to isolate myself,” James said, “and just kind of worked on my game in peace, no one to bother me.”

Since that escape, James has dominated. He reached the quarterfinals at last year’s U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills before helping the U.S. win the Walker Cup in September and winning the South Beach International Amateur last December. During his sophomore season for the Cavaliers, he didn’t finish worse than T-16, and he capped the campaign with a runner-up at the NCAA Championship. He then qualified for the U.S. Open, made the final eight of the Western Amateur, reached match play at the U.S. Amateur and then opened his junior year with a third-place showing at the Inverness Intercollegiate.

James has an outside shot at a PGA Tour card next summer, too, as he currently sits at 11 PGA Tour University Accelerated points. He gets a point for every made cut on Tour, and an additional point for a Tour top-10. He also can earn three points apiece for winning the NCAA individual title, Haskins Award (national college player of the year, voted on by players and coaches), Nicklaus Award (national college player of the year, voted on by a committee) and Hogan Award (national amateur player of the year, includes all results and voted on by a committee).

Virginia, which captured the team title at Inverness, ended up T-3 with Auburn, 11 shots back of Oklahoma, which beat runner-up Ole Miss by six shots.