Ben James Leads Preseason PGA Tour U Rankings for Class of 2026
Virginia’s Ben James tops the PGA TOUR University Class of 2026 preseason rankings, released Wednesday ahead of the 2025–26 college golf season. A three-time All-American with six career collegiate wins, James helped lead Virginia to a runner-up finish at the 2025 NCAA Championship. He is currently No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and has made nine PGA TOUR starts, including the past two U.S. Opens. James also finished tied for 33rd at the 2024 Valero Texas Open and will make his second Walker Cup appearance this fall.
Texas has two players in the top five. Christiaan Maas sits at No. 2 after eight top-10 finishes in 2024–25, including a win at the Pauma Valley Invitational. He also posted a fourth-place finish at the 2025 Investec South African Open on the DP World Tour and is ranked No. 7 in WAGR. Teammate Tommy Morrison is ranked No. 4. Morrison recorded ten top-20s last season and captured his first collegiate win at the Amer Ari Invitational. He became the first American to win the European Amateur in 2024, earning a spot in the Open Championship, where he finished T-60.
Ole Miss junior Michael La Sasso is ranked No. 3 after winning the 2025 NCAA individual title. He posted three wins and recorded the lowest single-season scoring average in program history (69.48), earning first-team All-America honors. La Sasso is set to compete in the Walker Cup alongside James and is making his fifth PGA TOUR start of the summer at the 3M Open.
Rounding out the top five is Oklahoma’s Jase Summy, who posted seven top-10 finishes and a win at the Maridoe Intercollegiate. Summy led the Sooners in scoring average (70.35) and rounds in the 60s (20), and added strong summer showings with a runner-up at the Sunnehanna Amateur, T-12 at the Northeast Amateur, and T-3 at the Southern Amateur. Oklahoma is the only program to have produced a PGA TOUR University graduate in each of the initiative’s first five years.
The Class of 2026 preseason ranking features players from 16 schools and seven countries: China, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States. Ole Miss leads all programs with four players in the top 25, while Virginia and Texas each have three.
PGA TOUR University rankings are determined in partnership with the World Amateur Golf Ranking and are based on a two-year performance window, including NCAA Division I events, PGA TOUR starts, and select DP World Tour tournaments. The ranking period began in Week 23 of 2024 and will conclude June 1, 2026, following stroke play at the NCAA Championship.
At the end of the 2025–26 season, the No. 1 player in the final ranking will earn PGA TOUR membership. Players ranked Nos. 2–10 will receive Korn Ferry Tour status, while Nos. 11–25 will earn exemptions into PGA TOUR Americas Segment II and later stages of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School.
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