HARTFORD, Conn. — Keith Kaliszewski, who has coached the golfers at Hamden Hall for more than two decades, recalls a phone call he once received from a proud dad.

“You know, Don James called me one day,” Kaliszewski said, “and he said, ‘I have this kid. You don’t know us, but I have this kid and he’s pretty good at golf and we really want him to be in a good academic situation.”

It didn’t take a lot of convincing. Ben James was already known for burning up golf courses everywhere, winning tournaments as a prodigy, and actually announced his commitment to play at UConn when he was 11 years old. As he entered seventh grade the James family, from Milford, was looking for a prep school. Still, Kaliszewski had only the vaguest idea what he’d be getting.

“He just never took a break from golf,” Kaliszewski said. “He would come to our match, or our practice, and then he’d leave and go practice on his own. I’d ask him, ‘Ben, when do you take a break from golf?’ And he’d say, ‘I don’t.’ … I’d say ‘Is that healthy? Do you ever feel like you’re doing too much of it?’ He’d be like, ‘No, if I take a break, I miss it too much.'”

It is estimated that even a devoted amateur who takes every advantageous avenue has but a 0.01 chance of joining the roughly 150 card-carrying PGA Tour pros, which is Powerball stuff. Research shows it’s harder to go from high school to the PGA Tour than even MLB, the NFL or NBA.

James chose a harder path, staying at home in Connecticut and playing for the prep school on which he settled, rather than move south where he could play year-round. But he never used the cold Connecticut winters as an excuse for taking a break. James worked on his craft at indoor facilities, usually Four Seasons in Bethany, determined to beat the darned-near unbeatable odds. He’ll be among the elite field at the Travelers Championship for the third time, first time as a bona fide pro.

He won every tournament he ever played in for Hamden Hall, beating high school seniors even as a 7th grader. He reopened recruitment, landed at Virginia and dominated college competition. In a whirlwind couple of weeks since graduating, he got an exemption to play at the Travelers and qualified for the U.S. Open, both for the third year in a row, but exemptions and qualifying will no longer be necessary. After holding the No. 1 spot in the PGA Tour University Rankings all year, James earned his Tour card and made a splash at the RBC Canadian Open last week, hitting drives as long as 389 yards, leading after two rounds before falling back to 54th, cashing a check for $23,069.20.

Not bad for a week’s work on the links for a 23-year-old, a week out of college, and it’s just a start.

“I’m just trying to see where my game stacks up,” James told reporters in Toronto before teeing off for the first time as a member of the Tour, “and meet some new friends. Everyone has been super nice to me out here. They know I’m the new kid, and they have all been super welcoming, and I really appreciate that. I would say just the friends and just learning about myself more and just kind of the everything about professional golf.”

The humility lines up with the golfer Kaliszewki coached and watched for six years. He may have been head-and-shoulders above the players around him, but he never acted like it.

“His teammates just loved him,” Kaliszewski said. “He had national recognition pretty much all through high school. But you would never have known that, just being out on the course with him. He was just another one of the guys. That’s how he carried himself, and he gathered a lot of respect because of it. Just a friendly, outgoing kid, but when it came time to play a match, he just flipped a switch and you didn’t hear a peep out of him.”

One match in particular stands out, against a soon-to-be Division I golfer.

“Ben goes down four shots after four holes,” Kaliszewki remembered. “It was like Ben was actually going to lose. I started walking with him and I catch up and he looks at me and says, ‘Don’t worry, I’m good.’ He goes out on the next five holes, drains a double breaking downhill putt on the 9th hole, and I think he ends up winning by 2 strokes. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, but when he’s playing he has a way of doing something amazing.

“Just when you’d think you might be able to beat him, it was later, ‘Uh, no, I didn’t really have a chance.'”

James was the top freshman in the country at Virginia, and went to become only the fifth college golfer to be named a first-team All-American four times. He also represented the U.S. on two Walker Cup teams.

James has always been driven, and what has always stood out is his ability to drive long off the tee.

“He’s the best ball-striker I’ve ever seen,” longtime Virginia coach Bowen Sargent has said.“I’ve never once seen him have a bad ball-striking day, not once in four years.”

James was at Shinnecock Hills this week playing in his third U.S. Open, after missing the cut at Pinehurst in 2024 and Oakmont in ’25. At the Travelers, now a Signature Event on the Tour, James’ exemption will place him in another elite field in his home state.

“Being so young, I’m just excited,” James said last week, after finishing 10-under through 36 holes at the Canadian Open. “I have no expectations. I’m going to play the best I can.”

Meanwhile, back at Hamden Hall, Kaliszewski is getting more and more calls from proud dads and the families of young golfers who now know, thanks to Ben James, how far you can go from there.

“He certainly put our program on the map,” he said. “Those decisions Ben’s made, to come to Hamden Hall, follow through on everything here, follow through everything at UVa, have gotten him to where he is now. Golf is one of the hardest sports to make it. We all knew what he could do, but to see him do it is something special.”

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