Ben James took the solo lead at 9 under on Friday at the RBC Canadian Open, a day after arriving at TPC Toronto as a PGA Tour member for the first time. The 2026 event turned into his ninth start on Tour, and for a few hours he was the man at the top of the rbc canadian open leaderboard.
That is why the final stretch of Friday drew attention. James opened with an eagle in the morning, added four birdies and had two eagles and one bogey through 30 holes, while the cut line was still being sorted for the weekend. At 5:05 p.m. ET, DataGolf.com projected the line at 2 under, with a 79 percent chance it would stay there and a 20 percent chance it would slip to 3 under, with only the low 65 and ties set to move on.
The leaderboard was crowded around him. Burns birdied his final hole to join James at 9 under, Haotong Li was also there, and Mitchell shot 64 to become the fifth golfer at 9 under and tie for second. Earlier in the day, Brooks Koepka had surged into the lead at 9 under after a round that included four birdies, a bogey, a double and an eagle on the 18th, before the board shifted again as more scores came in.
James did not sound like a player trying to force the moment. He said he had no clue what it would feel like to be in that position because he had never been there before, and added that he was not thinking about results this week. He said he was focused on getting comfortable, making new friends, having fun and seeing where things fell, then called the week his baseline and his first professional debut while saying he still had work to do.
For now, the question is whether the 12 remains a breakout and not just a flash. James has only one round left to protect a share of the lead, while Burns, Koepka and the rest of the packed top of the board wait for the weekend tee sheet to be set and the cut to clear the field behind them.
