Jackson Koivun has only needed three professional tournaments to hijack the image. The Californian was proclaimed champion of the 3M Open, just a month and a half after leaving the amateur world. At 21 years old, he is the new sensation of American golf. With his style, not a terrible hitter like all the boys today, but a fine stylist with all the clubs in the bag and a putt that is a knife, he looks like a really good player.
In his biography it will appear that his first title came in front of the world number 1, Scottie Scheffler, who once again played another fabulous round. He shot 63 shots, eight under par, without a mistake. In the last 5 years, the pacesetting golfer of the entire decade has played 22 rounds in that number or less, more than double those who follow him in that section on the PGA Tour. But it was not enough because the young man did not wrinkle. He had to settle for being second for the fifth time in 2026. He has played 193 world ranking tournaments and in 100 he has finished in the top four. (Results)
Koivun came out three shots ahead, with the Argentine Emiliano Grillo. With his good boy air, a polished look and profiled jaw, Koivun was so perfect that he shot 66, making three birdies on the first nine holes and another two on the second nine. He started well and the adrenaline prevented him from sealing it with another birdie on the 18th, which was an easy par 5. He took all the fairways except one and all the greens except three. And when in the 18th he hit a mid-amateur tee shot, he added that bit of humanity so in demand in the marketing of the sport. He ended up winning by the same income with which he entered the hot Sunday in Minnesota.
On Saturday he shot 61 and hasn’t made a bogey all weekend. The former amateur world number 1 paraded down the fairway of the 18th hole amidst a standing ovation from the public, who stood in a circle around the green to the most exciting golfer that golf has produced in recent times. “It’s crazy, but I just think about continuing to work and have more come.”
meteoric climb
Koivun has not needed to go through the classification school. He earned his PGA Tour card through the program PGA Tour University Accelerated, reserved for the most dominant amateurs on the American university circuit. And dominant is an understatement: At Auburn he won two national team championships, three SEC individual titles and became the first college player to win the three major individual honors—the Haskins, Hogan and Nicklaus awards—on two separate occasions, something no one had accomplished before.
Jackson Koivun (21), excited after making the last putt
His farewell to amateur golf could not have been better: he helped Auburn win its second NCAA championship in three years before announcing that he was giving up his last university year to make the leap to professionalism, just after playing this year’s US Open as an amateur, where he achieved a notable tie for 23rd place. A superstar is already on the way.
