Jackson Koivun shrugs off Scottie Scheffler for maiden win at 3M

Auburn’s Nick Clinard considers Jackson Koivun to be the most positive player he’s ever coached.

“He really expects good things to happen to him,” Clinard said.

So, when Koivun grabbed the first 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour just three starts into his professional career, there was no thought of giving it back, not even to the world’s best player, Scottie Scheffler. Koivun instead wrote a few words of motivation on his glove – confidence, trust, dominate – then backed up Saturday’s 10-under 61 with a bogey-free 66 Sunday to win the 3M Open by three shots for his first of what is expected to be many Tour titles.

Koivun’s victory comes seven years after Matthew Wolff, then a can’t-miss talent in his own right, captured his maiden Tour victory at TPC Twin Cities in his third event as a pro by edging Bryson DeChambeau and fellow rookie Collin Morikawa. Koivun’s task was holding off a trio of major champions – Brian Harman, Hideki Matsuyama and Scheffler, who shot 64-63 on the weekend but could never get within two shots of the cool, calm and collected Koivun, whose 25-under performance broke the tournament record.

“All throughout the crowd, I kept hearing, ‘Scottie’s comin’, Scottie’s comin’,’” Koivun said. “I just tried to tone that out and keep playing the golf I knew I could, and I was able to find some good putts coming down the stretch.”

Koivun, 21, has never had to look very hard.

The buzz he’s generated from winning 11 times in three seasons at Auburn, notching four top-11s on Tour last summer and earning his Tour card with 42 PGA Tour University Accelerated points (it only requires 20), a good chunk stems from Koivun’s ability to roll his rock, a clear separator when comparing Koivun to other recent hype machines such as Nick Dunlap, Gordon Sargent and Luke Clanton.

Buddy Alexander, the legendary Florida coach who spent a couple seasons as Koivun’s assistant at Auburn, says of Koivun, “Jackson’s the best putter I’ve ever seen. … His stroke is pretty much perfect. It kind of reminds me of some guy named Tiger Woods.” Alexander, by the way, also coached Brian Gay, who for nearly a decade never ranked outside the top 25 on Tour in strokes gained putting.

Koivun finished third in that statistic at the 3M while holing 51 of 51 putts inside 5 feet, a feat that should come as no surprise considering Koivun wouldn’t come home for dinner as a kid without holing 100 such putts on the practice green at Cinnabar Hills, the San Jose, California, muni where Koivun’s instructor, Fred Garcia, still works as the head pro.

“I just don’t get scared of a lot of putts,” Koivun said in a recent PGA Tour Studios feature.

Not the 11-footer for birdie at the par-3 fourth that stretched Koivun’s lead from three shots to start the final day to five.

Not the 4-footer that kept Koivun from dropping a shot at the par-4 seventh.

Not even the 15-foot par at the par-4 ninth that Koivun called the “biggest putt I made all week.”

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“Scoreboard was right there, and I saw exactly how I stood,” said Koivun, who knew a bogey meant the charging Scheffler, though five groups ahead, was within two shots. “Making that was huge for my momentum, just helped me keep it rolling on the back nine.”

Scheffler closed the gap with five birdies in a seven-hole stretch, but he knew that with Koivun not wavering, he was running out of holes. Lipping out a 6-footer for birdie at No. 14 didn’t help matters, as Koivun soon holed another 11-foot birdie, this time at the par-5 12th, to return to four ahead.

Even though Scheffler birdied the short, par-4 16th and par-5 18th coming in to get within a couple at 22 under, where he’d end up second for the fifth time this year, he described his contention as “deceptive.”

“It can always look sometimes maybe a little tighter than it is just because those guys have time to go through those easy holes that I just played. … I needed to really post something at his number or ahead of his number if I wanted to have a chance.”

Koivun never invited in the possibility of a collapse. He didn’t record a bogey in his final 36 holes, and on Sunday, he missed just one fairway while going a perfect 3 for 3 in scrambling.

With the result all but certain following a two-putt birdie at No. 16, a still nervy Koivun chunked his drive at No. 18 – and still found the fairway with the 249-yard poke, eventually wedging from 122 yards to just over the green, chipping to 14 feet and canning the meaty par save, which he celebrated with a big fist pump, followed by an outpouring of emotion.

“Looking back, I mean, I probably could have hit 3-iron [off the tee],” Koivun said, “but if you told me I was going to make par, I don’t really care how it looked.”

Including college tournaments, Koivun has now won seven times in 14 starts, a run that includes his six-victory spring semester that culminated in Auburn’s second NCAA title in three years. Koivun, who could’ve activated his Tour membership last summer, held off his professional aspirations a few more weeks so he could use his amateur exemption into last month’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, where he shared low-am honors at T-23.

Koivun turned pro just three weeks ago, ahead of the John Deere Classic, where he missed the cut. But he bounced right back with a T-10 as the pre-tournament betting favorite at the Isco Championship, leaving no time for anyone to withdraw their lofty expectations for the best amateur in over 15 years, per Data Golf’s statistical analysis.

With his breakthrough in Minnesota, Koivun is suddenly and firmly on the U.S. Presidents Cup radar, much like Ludvig Åberg was for the European Ryder Cup team ahead of the 2023 matches in Rome. When Åberg claimed the European Masters, however, it marked just his third career top-10 between the DP World and PGA tours. He’d not made a major start by then either. And yet, captain Luke Donald still awarded him a captain’s pick.

Chances are U.S. skipper Brandt Snedeker is getting Koivun’s number if he didn’t have it already.

“Straight to the Presidents Cup team,” tweeted No Laying Up’s main account. “Do not pass go.”

The tweet garnered over 100,000 likes in less than an hour.

Before Koivun competed in last fall’s Procore Championship, he told short-game coach Josh Gregory that his goal was to beat eight of the 10 U.S. Ryder Cuppers in the field. Gregory then reminded Koivun that meant the best he could finish was third. Koivun ended up besting all but Scheffler that week and tying for fourth.

Now, he’s beaten Scheffler, too.

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“Anytime you’re trying to win for the first time, it’s awfully difficult, especially for a young guy coming out of college,” Scheffler said. “I think that shows not only how talented of a player he is, but I think the mental strength he has as well.”

Scheffler added that he’s yet to see Koivun hit a shot in person, though he and everyone else knows that will soon change.

Clinard’s message to Koivun via phone on Saturday night: “Go be you … and you’ll come out on top.”

Koivun, of course, already believed it.

“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 Sunday evening. “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.”

Here’s how the $8.8 million purse will be paid out at the PGA Tour’s 3M Open.