At the age of 12 James was introduced to golf by his father and he became a member of Gathurst Golf Club. James was taught to play by his father up until the age of 14 and after that started seeing professional coaches.

He turned professional with a 3.9 handicap in September 2010 after winning a Europro event at Slaley Hall - James being the first amateur to achieve this on the Europro Tour.

As an amateur James won various junior championships and in 2008 was selected for the England Under 21 squad and in 2009 was promoted to the England Squad.