Every so often, a young star comes around and throws golf into a frenzy. Projections are made. Predictions are confidently declared. A hypothetical number of future major championships is assigned to a name. This kid is different, they’ll say. The future has arrived.
Jackson Koivun has had this effect on the amateur game for the better part of the last three years.
So, naturally, professional golf experienced a tidal wave of excitement over the weekend when Koivun — the 21-year-old from San Jose, Calif. — won the PGA Tour’s 3M Open with ease. For a sport that will not have a men’s major champion younger than 30 when the 2027 Masters rolls around, this feels especially notable.
Not only did Koivun, in his third start as a pro, win by three strokes and set a tournament scoring record with a 25-under tournament total of 259, but he also 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 said 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 aside, there are real reasons to believe Koivun is, in fact, different.
As a freshman at Auburn, Koivun put together one of the greatest seasons in college golf history. He won all four major college 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 got right back to it. He earned three individual wins, and more than doubled the necessary amount of points in the PGA Tour University program to turn pro with immediate tour status at the end of the season.
Jackson Koivun emotionally responds after winning his first PGA Tour event. (Andrew Wevers / Getty Images)
But he decided to wait a year and return to Auburn for one more run, where he helped the team win another NCAA title in 2026. And Koivun swept the major collegiate awards he was eligible for again, becoming the first player in college golf history to win all three more than once.
Koivun holds 11 collegiate titles, joining just a handful of players to reach double-digit victories, with Tiger Woods, Mickelson and Jon Rahm included in that group. He won six of his last 10 tournaments in college, and broke Collin Morikawa’s single-season scoring average.
That’s a resume that warrants some serious hype. But it’s Koivun’s poise in the moments that matter the most that has transformed him from a serious prospect to a real threat against the world’s best.
Fast forward to Saturday at the 3M Open. Koivun launched himself into the lead at TPC Twin Cities by lashing a 305-yard approach shot to 12 feet on the par-5 12th hole. It was the kind of swing that perfectly encapsulated his unique athleticism. Slow down Koivun’s swing, and you can see his hips open up dramatically as he nears impact only to close up — ever so slightly — as he strikes the ball. It’s an idiosyncratic move that allows for extreme clubface stability through the ball. There’s a hypermobility built into his body, and you could see it on full display with that especially violent lash.
Jackson Koivun’s sick approach was the shot of the week
Hugh Kellenberger
Better yet, Koivun went on to make that putt for eagle, and the momentum never stopped. He buried birdie putt after birdie putt, extending the margin, never taking his foot off the gas. That included the par-5 18th, where Koivun striped another long-range approach to 13 feet, setting up another holed putt for eagle.
He says his superpower is his mindset, not his talent. I believe 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 said.
On Sunday, Koivun entered the final round with a three-shot lead, where the magic persisted and that mental strength continued to reveal itself. After three birdies in his first six holes, Koivun found himself with a five-shot lead. But with Scheffler charging behind him on the leaderboard and in front of him on the course, Koivun was in jeopardy of losing a shot on the par-4 ninth. Instead, he poured in a 14-foot par putt, walking it in like a seasoned veteran.
Jackson Koivun wins 3M Open in third start as a professional
He sealed the deal with a bogey-free 66. Another par save capped it, followed by a big, well-deserved fist pump in front of the Minnesota crowds — the crowning moment of one of the more promising young players to come out of college in the last decade.
Koivun is not the first young gun to win shortly after leaving college, although he might be the most impressive.
Matthew Wolff won the 2019 3M Open in his third start as a professional. Nick Dunlap won as an amateur at the American Express in 2024. Dunlap and Wolff were also hot prospects, but now, they are both ranked outside the top 300 in the world. On the flip side, Morikawa won his first event as a pro six starts after college, and Rahm 13. Both now have multiple major titles and are ranked in the top 12 in the world with a combined four majors between them.
In 2013, it took 15 tournaments for a 20-year-old Jordan Spieth to claim his first victory as a professional, at the John Deere Classic — a moment that he parlayed into a Presidents Cup captain’s pick. For Koivun, an invitation to play on this year’s team at Medinah is not out of the realm of possibility. Many are already calling for it, rightfully so.
The tour win-to-team event pipeline has strong precedent. Ludvig Aberg, who also came to the PGA Tour via the PGA Tour U program, made the 2023 European Ryder Cup team after two T4 finishes and a win at the DP World Tour’s European Masters. If you count his PGA Tour starts as an amateur, Koivun has five top-10 finishes in his last eight starts, including a win over the No. 1 player in the world, by comparison.
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