Hello, world! With Scottie Scheffler in hot pursuit, Jackson Koivun calmly wins his first tour title in only his third pro start

What Jackson Koivun did Sunday at the 3M Open in Blaine, Minn., wasn’t really all that significant or even newsworthy. He simply added his name to a list—albeit an impressive one—that includes Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young and Viktor Hovland as just another player who relegated World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler to second place for the fifth time this year on the PGA Tour.

>Ho hum.

>Wait. Um, let’s roll that back. What just happened? Only clearly a seismic victory with distinct future ramifications for one of the most promising players of the last quarter century.

>Hyperbole? Maybe. But Koivun, twice a winner of the Jack Nicklaus Award as collegiate player of the year, didn’t take long to start fulfilling his potential. He performed near flawlessly in storming to his first PGA Tour title—in his third professional start … at 21 years of age … with the specter of Scheffler casting his omnipresent shadow over the proceedings. All the Auburn All-American did at TPC Twin Cities was systematically and clinically shoot a bogey-free five-under 66 and set a tournament record with a 25-under 259 total.

>The seventh first-time winner on the tour this year, Koivun beat hard-luck loser Scheffler (who would have thought attaching that description to the talented Texan?) by three shots to earn a two-year exemption, $1.584 million, and the mantel of being called golf’s “next big thing.” At least for now. Time will tell. But time is on his side.

>“I'm just trying to soak it all in. Fully hasn't set in yet, but I'm sure it will come any second here now,” said Koivun, who moved up to 70 in the FedEx Cup standings, which as of right now would qualify him for the playoffs. “That's what we train for. That's the position we all strive to be in even through college. 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.”

Andrew Wevers

>Ranked 206th in the world at the start of the week, Koivun exhibited little nervousness when he began the final round with a three-shot lead. His approach on the first hole settled 17 inches from the hole for exactly the start he would have drawn up. He increased his lead to five shots when he buried an 11-footer for another birdie at the par-3 fourth hole. Perhaps the most telling moment of the day came at the ninth when Koivun faced a 15-foot par putt while Scheffler was starting to rattle the cage. No problem. Straight down.

>Ho hum.

>“Yeah, I think the putt on 9 might be the biggest putt I made all week,” Koivun conceded. “Scoreboard was right there and I saw exactly how I stood. If I missed that, then I only had at two-shot lead where last time I checked I had a five-shot lead. So making that was huge for my momentum; just helped me keep it rolling on the back nine.”

>The kid painted a masterpiece. He really did.

>He hit 13 of 14 fairways and 15 greens in regulation in the final round and made every clutch putt he sized up. Never once did he look in trouble—or look like he’d be bothered if he did. Koivun wasn’t just bogey-free on Sunday; he was par or better over his last 42 holes. Over 72 holes, the California native led the field for the week in strokes gained/approach the green (+9.363) and total (+17.031).

>Scheffler, who probably sees 8-balls in his sleep because he always seems to find himself behind one after 36 holes, shot 15 under on the weekend that included a closing 63 for 22-under 262. Koivun equaled that after a third-round 61. Even when he chopped up the last hole with a 249-yard tee ball (shortest of the entire week), an adrenaline-fueled wedge and a week chip, he wouldn’t relent. He rolled in the 14-foot par save and raised his putter as the ball found the cup. Koivun then punched the air and gave a double fist pump.

“You know, I played a great round of golf today,” Koivun said with earnest frankness. And accuracy. “Definitely had some nerves coming down on 18. All throughout the crowd I kept hearing, ‘Scottie's coming, Scottie's coming.’ I just tried to tone that out and keep playing the golf I knew I could. Was able to find some good putts coming down the stretch.”

>“Depending on how Jackson played, I knew I was going to need a really low number,” said Scheffler, who opened the season with a victory at The American Express but had to settle for a tour-leading 11th top 10 finish. “I wanted to get something really low on the front nine and kind of put myself on the leaderboard. I didn't quite have that, I think I was only three under on the front so I wasn't able to really apply too much pressure early on.

>“Overall, it was a pretty solid week. Sometimes on these types of courses you can't really have too many off nines and I felt like for me this week, maybe back nine Friday and front nine Saturday kind of cost me, that little stretch.”

>Koivun’s conquest has parallels to Matthew Wolff’s victory in the inaugural edition of the 3M Open in 2019. Wolff also won in his third pro start after collecting the Jack Nicklaus Award a few months earlier. The difference is that Koivun’s victory actually was a long time coming, even if it was his third start as a pro and 13th start in a tour event.

Andrew Wevers

>As a freshman in 2024, Koivun swept all three player of the year awards—the Nicklaus, Hogan and Haskins—in leading Auburn to the Division I title. As a sophomore he earned enough points to accept tour membership via the PGA Tour University Accelerated program, but he put that off to return to Auburn. Good move. He won six times, again captured all the player of the year awards and helped Auburn win another national championship.

>In 2025, when he could have turned pro, Koivun started acting like one, anyway. He put together a stretch of four straight finishes of 11th or better, including two in the top five. You can’t say he was due this early into his pro career, but Koivun definitely was ready to perform.

>“I know the PGA Tour is hard and it's very competitive, and fortunately enough I was able to get quite a few sponsor exemptions last summer to kind of get acquainted with the feeling of playing on the PGA Tour,” said Koivun who missed the cut in his pro debut but finished T-10 two weeks ago at the ISCO Championship. “These last three events have been definitely a little bit of a wake-up call getting back into the swing of things, but I'm just excited with the way I played this week.”

>Excited. And determined. His mindset to succeed could be found on the words he had written on his glove. On the palm were the words “confidence” and “trust.” On the thumb, a place where he could see the word on every swing, was the word “dominate.” It's a habit that carried over from his college days.

David Berding

>So, no real mystery where this precocious player intends to go. When he accepted the Nicklaus Award again this year at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, the tournament host advised Koivun and the winners in the other college divisions about the importance of the mental game. Koivun nodded knowingly hearing the Golden Bear's sage words.

>“I feel like I've gotten a lot better over the past couple years of being able to beat guys with my mentality,” Koivun said. “Sometimes I watch guys hit on the range and I don't feel like I'm the most talented out there, but if I can go out there and believe and use my brain to my advantage, then that's definitely kind of like a superpower.”

>Yeah. It kind of is. Confidence. Trust. Dominate. Remember those words.