Running with Rick: Ben James jumps off page at inaugural Biltmore Championship Asheville

The PGA Tour kicks off its fall schedule with a new event, the Biltmore Championship Asheville, being played at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove in North Carolina. A new course and event on the schedule offer a new set of challenges when handicapping the course. In reality, the process involves a lot of educated guesses. Here’s what we know about The Cliffs at Walnut Cove.

It’s a Jack Nicklaus design, which means there is plenty of bunkering, especially around the greens. Those bunkers, along with well-placed creeks and water hazards, will make the approach shots significantly more challenging than the tee shots on this course. At only 7,249 yards, however, many of those approach shots will come with wedges.

While there are plenty of trees on the property, I wouldn’t call this a “tree-lined” golf course. Much of the foliage should be out of play for these golfers, with plenty of room to the left and right of the fairways. The magic number for a driver is 310 yards. If you can carry it that far, you will be able to clear much of the trouble that lurks on the first shot. The real unknown is how penal the Kentucky bluegrass rough will be this week. Expectations are that it will be grown to 6 inches, which could pose a problem for errant tee shots. The ability to avoid or extract your ball from the rough will be the “X-factor” this week.

The event has pulled in an exciting field, filled with young talent and those who want to make sure their game is sharp for next week’s Presidents Cup.

Let’s start with Kevin Yu, who provides lots of reasons for optimism, not only this week but for many weeks moving forward. Since joining the Tour full-time, Yu has been one of the best ball-strikers on the circuit, routinely piling up birdie opportunities. However, he’s been a dismal putter, sometimes ranking at the literal bottom of the statistical category for a season.

But the tide is starting to shift for Yu, who was a Tour-average putter in 2025 and just slightly below average in 2026. While that doesn’t sound great, it marks an improvement of nearly 0.75 strokes per round!

More recently, Yu is starting to get even better. Across his last 22 rounds, he’s gained 10.27 strokes putting in total, and it has led to four top-25 finishes over that six-week stretch. His most recent start, the Wyndham Championship, was the third-best putting week of his career, and he finished fourth. If this trend continues, he’ll be a dangerous player all fall. I’m most excited about his price to finish inside the top 20, which can currently be found at +150 at DraftKings Sportsbook.

Ben Kohles has been one of the best surprises in 2026, winning on the Korn Ferry Tour and contending regularly on the PGA Tour. He’s compiled excellent stat profiles on both circuits, and he just refuses to stop playing golf! Kohles has already played 26 times this year, including three times on the Korn Ferry Tour since his PGA Tour season ended at the Wyndham Championship.

No matter where Kohles plays, he leans into his DNA. He’s one of the best iron players in this field, and he’s showing signs of great improvement with the putter. He’s played 12 events in a row without missing a cut and has finished outside the top 30 only once in those 12 starts. The putter is definitely something that could cost him a high finish, but I believe he has one of the highest floors in this field. That’s why I’ll be deploying him in the top-20 market this week, which can be found at +182.

This year has been underwhelming for Marco Penge, who came from the DP World Tour in January with high expectations from people like me. His year got off to a slow start because of illness, and he dealt with lingering injuries that cost him even more time on the course. However, he looks healthy now, and the results are starting to turn.

His last two events have been played on the DP World Tour, where he finished T6 at the British Masters and T18 at the European Masters. He always drives it beautifully and is one of the longest hitters in this field, which should allow him to separate himself off the tee. He’s not just a one-tool player — he’s gained 29.36 strokes from tee to green across his last seven starts and has gained strokes putting in five of those seven. Since he possesses immense upside, I want to target him toward the top of the board. I’ve clicked Penge to finish inside the top 10 at +310.

While Jackson Koivun will get much of the attention at the top of the board, and rightfully so, it’s the other young stud who has caught my eye. That, of course, is Ben James. In his eight PGA Tour starts this year, he’s gained 1.10 strokes per round and is compiling an impressive stat profile along the way.

He’s gained strokes off the tee in all eight starts, and he’s gained strokes putting in each of his last six. The combination of being able to beat your peers with the longest and shortest clubs in your bag is exceedingly rare in the modern game. It’s also impressive to see a young player find solace on the greens, which is something that usually comes with experience.

The last time we saw James was his third-place finish at the Wyndham Championship, where he gained a staggering 10.01 strokes from tee to green. That has been his best finish of the year, narrowly improving on his T4 at the Corales Puntacana Championship in July. I’m buying all the James stock for next year but also giving him the nod this week. He’s my pick to win the Biltmore Championship at +2450.

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