Every so usually, a younger star comes round and throws golf right into a frenzy. Projections are made. Predictions are confidently declared. A hypothetical variety of future main championships is assigned to a reputation. This child is completely different, they’ll say. The future has arrived.
Jackson Koivun has had this impact on the novice recreation for the higher a part of the final three years.
So, naturally, skilled golf skilled a tidal wave of pleasure over the weekend when Koivun — the 21-year-old from San Jose, Calif. — received the PGA Tour’s 3M Open with ease. For a sport that won’t have a males’s main champion youthful than 30 when the 2027 Masters rolls round, this feels particularly notable.
Not solely did Koivun, in his third begin as a professional, win by three strokes and set a event scoring file with a 25-under event whole of 259, however he additionally fended off a Sunday charge from the world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. Scheffler shot a final-round 63, and Koivun barely flinched.
“That’s what we train for,” he stated after the win. “That’s the position we all strive to be in even through college. You want to be leading a PGA Tour event… once you’re finally in it, you’ve just got to keep your head down and commit to every single golf shot. Fortunately, it worked out for me today.”
Hyperbole apart, there are actual causes to imagine Koivun is, actually, completely different.
As a freshman at Auburn, Koivun put collectively one in all the best seasons in faculty golf historical past. He received all 4 main faculty golf awards in 2024: the Jack Nicklaus Award, the Fred Haskins Award, the Ben Hogan Award and the Phil Mickelson Award, and led the Tigers to their first-ever NCAA title.
As a sophomore, Koivun acquired proper again to it. He earned three particular person wins, and greater than doubled the essential quantity of factors in the PGA Tour University program to show professional with instant tour standing at the finish of the season.
Jackson Koivun emotionally responds after profitable his first PGA Tour occasion. (Andrew Wevers / Getty Images)
But he determined to attend a yr and return to Auburn for yet one more run, the place he helped the workforce win one other NCAA title in 2026. And Koivun swept the main collegiate awards he was eligible for once more, changing into the first participant in faculty golf historical past to win all three greater than as soon as.
Koivun holds 11 collegiate titles, becoming a member of only a handful of gamers to succeed in double-digit victories, with Tiger Woods, Mickelson and Jon Rahm included in that group. He received six of his final 10 tournaments in faculty, and broke Collin Morikawa’s single-season scoring common.
That’s a resume that warrants some critical hype. But it’s Koivun’s poise in the moments that matter the most that has remodeled him from a critical prospect to an actual menace towards the world’s greatest.
Fast ahead to Saturday at the 3M Open. Koivun launched himself into the lead at TPC Twin Cities by lashing a 305-yard method shot to 12 ft on the par-5 twelfth gap. It was the form of swing that completely encapsulated his distinctive athleticism. Slow down Koivun’s swing, and you may see his hips open up dramatically as he nears influence solely to shut up — ever so barely — as he strikes the ball. It’s an idiosyncratic transfer that enables for excessive clubface stability via the ball. There’s a hypermobility constructed into his physique, and you could possibly see it on full show with that particularly violent lash.
Jackson Koivun’s sick method was the shot of the week
Hugh Kellenberger
Better but, Koivun went on to make that putt for eagle, and the momentum by no means stopped. He buried birdie putt after birdie putt, extending the margin, by no means taking his foot off the gasoline. That included the par-5 18th, the place Koivun striped one other long-range method to 13 ft, establishing one other holed putt for eagle.
He says his superpower is his mindset, not his expertise. I imagine him.
“I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better over the past couple years of being able to beat guys with my mentality,” Koivun stated.
On Sunday, Koivun entered the closing spherical with a three-shot lead, the place the magic persevered and that psychological power continued to disclose itself. After three birdies in his first six holes, Koivun discovered himself with a five-shot lead. But with Scheffler charging behind him on the leaderboard and in entrance of him on the course, Koivun was in jeopardy of shedding a shot on the par-4 ninth. Instead, he poured in a 14-foot par putt, strolling it in like a seasoned veteran.
Jackson Koivun wins 3M Open in third begin as an expert
He sealed the take care of a bogey-free 66. Another par save capped it, adopted by a giant, well-deserved fist pump in entrance of the Minnesota crowds — the crowning second of one in all the extra promising younger gamers to come back out of school in the final decade.
Koivun is not the first younger gun to win shortly after leaving faculty, though he is perhaps the most spectacular.
Matthew Wolff received the 2019 3M Open in his third begin as an expert. Nick Dunlap received as an novice at the American Express in 2024. Dunlap and Wolff have been additionally scorching prospects, however now, they’re each ranked outdoors the prime 300 in the world. On the flip facet, Morikawa received his first occasion as a professional six begins after faculty, and Rahm 13. Both now have a number of main titles and are ranked in the prime 12 in the world with a mixed 4 majors between them.
In 2013, it took 15 tournaments for a 20-year-old Jordan Spieth to assert his first victory as an expert, at the John Deere Classic — a second that he parlayed right into a Presidents Cup captain’s choose. For Koivun, an invite to play on this yr’s workforce at Medinah is not out of the realm of chance. Many are already calling for it, rightfully so.
The tour win-to-team occasion pipeline has robust precedent. Ludvig Aberg, who additionally got here to the PGA Tour through the PGA Tour U program, made the 2023 European Ryder Cup workforce after two T4 finishes and a win at the DP World Tour’s European Masters. If you depend his PGA Tour begins as an novice, Koivun has 5 top-10 finishes in his final eight begins, together with a win over the No. 1 participant in the world, by comparability.
How might U.S. workforce captain Brandt Snedeker resist the hottest younger participant in the world?
