Last year, the Cavaliers made program history by claiming their first-ever ACC Championship, which they followed with a runner-up finish at the NCAA Championship. The 2025-26 season has shown continued dominance, starting hot and finishing strong.
Virginia sits atop the ACC and is nationally ranked at No. 2, riding a red-hot streak throughout the entire season. Only four other ACC teams sit in the top 25, with the second-highest being UNC at No. 9.
That ranking establishes the Cavaliers as the clear favorite heading into the ACC Tournament — and no one has embodied that dominance more than senior Ben James. With the tournament around the corner, James has been named among 10 semifinalists for the Ben Hogan Award for the third consecutive year, a testament to both his individual excellence and the program's sustained success.
The Ben Hogan Award annually recognizes the top men’s collegiate golfers based on results from all collegiate, amateur and professional events played over the previous 12 months. An international selection committee composed of 40 leaders in collegiate, amateur and professional golf votes during each stage of the process.
James closed out the regular season this past week at the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial Tournament in Charlottesville, and his résumé speaks for itself. He sits at No. 1 on the PGA Tour University Rankings, No. 2 on the World Amateur Golf Rankings and No. 2 on the Scoreboard individual rankings. He is also the first three-time PING First Team All-American in program history, a distinction that underscores just how prevalent he has been throughout his collegiate career.
He has been the anchor of this team, recording a top-five finish in all eight of his collegiate events this year. Week in and week out, James has steadied the squad and provided the kind of consistent, reliable scoring that separates good teams from great ones, while helping push Virginia to the national No. 2 spot.
Graduate student Paul Chang, ranked No. 8 on the Scoreboard individual rankings, has been equally pivotal to the squad’s success. He is the only Cavalier to claim an individual title this year and has done it twice, most recently at the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial Tournament. His performance at the Calusa Cup was perhaps his most impressive showing, as he carried the team without James in the lineup, posting a 12-under first-place finish and pulling four strokes ahead of second place to secure Virginia the second-place spot.
That type of performance speaks volumes to Chang’s ability to rise to the moment. When the team needed a player to step up, he thrived in the position, cementing himself as one of the most reliable contributors on the roster.
Last year, Chang was named a PING All-American honorable mention and finished tied for seventh in the NCAA Championship, earning him all ACC honors as well. He entered this year as No. 19 on the PGA Tour University Ranking. But now, as a veteran, Chang has saved some of his best golf for his last season, climbing up the individual rankings by 11 spots. His ability to go deep into the red and sustain it over multiple rounds makes him one of the most dangerous players in the ACC Tournament.
But the Cavaliers flash even more depth in their roster with senior Bryan Lee sitting at No. 26 nationally. Lee has quietly put together one of the most consistent seasons of any player in the country. He recorded top-10 finishes in all three fall tournaments and matched a career best with a 15-under at the Puerto Rico Classic.
Lee also made his PGA Tour debut this past summer after qualifying for the U.S. Open at Oakmont. He enters the ACC Tournament with 17 career top-10 finishes, tying Lewis Chitengwa for the seventh most in program history. Like James and Chang, Lee has been a dependable force all season and his ability to consistently put up low scores makes Virginia’s top three one of the most imposing trios in the conference.
Junior Josh Duangmanee also helps round out the squad. He finished the 2024-25 season ranked No. 118 in the NCAA rankings and has only strengthened his standing since. He has already notched seven career top-10 finishes, and at the Hayt, he delivered the best individual score of the entire tournament field — a 65 featuring a five-birdie, bogey-free back nine. His ability to get hot and sustain it makes him a legitimate X-factor heading into the postseason. When Duangmanee is on, Virginia's lineup becomes nearly impossible to game-plan against.
The individual accolades have not stopped with Virginia’s roster either. Associate head coach Dustin Groves was named one of five Division I finalists for the 2026 Jan Strickland Award, further reflecting the culture of excellence that has taken hold within the program. Groves has helped the Cavaliers become the only men's Division I program to reach NCAA Championship match play in each of the last three seasons.
Now the postseason arrives, and with it comes the stage that every program spends the entire year chasing. The ACC Tournament will bring the best the conference has to offer. This time around, Virginia enters not as the underdog but as the team everyone is gunning for. Last year, the Cavaliers came in sitting at No. 3 in the ACC and left as champions. This year, the target is squarely on their backs, and how they respond to that pressure will define their season.
The Ben Hogan semifinalist has set the standard all year, but Virginia’s path to a second-straight ACC title runs through the entire roster. The Cavaliers have spent the season proving they belong at the top — not on the back of one player, but as a collective. With the ACC Tournament Thursday, it is time for every member of this squad to rise and prove it when it counts for the five day tournament.
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