SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Jackson Koivun performed so well during his time with the Auburn University men’s golf team, he had already locked up a PGA Tour card after his sophomore season during the 2024-25 school year.
He just didn’t think he was ready for that level of the sport, regardless of results that suggested differently.
Now he is.
Koivun is in the U.S. Open for the second straight time. He made it to the United States Golf Association’s big show last year through a 36-hole qualifier before returning this year by virtue of being the No. 1 player in the men’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Koivun, who turned 21 last month, had to stay an amateur to use the exemption to be among the 156-player field that tees off Thursday at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island. He makes his pro debut in two weeks at the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois.
If the past month wasn’t enough of a whirlwind — he led Auburn to its second NCAA Division I title in men’s golf (having helped the Tigers to their first in 2024 while he was just a freshman), then announced his decision to turn pro and get ready for the U.S. Open — imagine what last year was like. Koivun, a California native whose family moved to North Carolina while he was in high school, clinched a tour card at the NCAA tournament through the PGA Tour University program for underclassmen.
“I had about a week to make that decision, and I just wasn’t ready,” Koivun said Monday when asked why he didn’t turn pro a year ago. “And I’m very happy I made that decision.”
His skills were never in question, and Koivun showed that after missing the cut at last year’s U.S. Open at Pennsylvania’s Oakmont Country Club.
He tied for 11th in the John Deere Classic in early July, tied for sixth a week later in Kentucky at the ISCO Championship (an opposite-field event held at the same time as the Scottish Open), tied for fifth in the Wyndham Championship in early August in Greensboro, North Carolina, and then played in the final group at the Procore Championship, the mid-September tournament in Napa, California, where the winner was Scottie Scheffler, the longtime No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking.
“I think my golf game was there,” Koivun said. “I just think I wasn’t ready to leave college, and mentally just wasn’t ready for the potential hardships and the travel and everything like that. But taking another year to really wrap my mind around that was good for me, and now I’m definitely ready.”
He’ll find out how much progress he has made in the 126th U.S. Open. Oakmont and Shinnecock Hills have reputations of being among the toughest courses for golf’s toughest test.
And then he’ll have a half-dozen or so starts this year on the PGA Tour to see what kind of progress he makes. He is assured a tour card through the 2027 season.
As for those “potential hardships,” Koivun was referring to the adjustments he knows every player who makes the jump from college to pro golf will face. He won six times this year without facing constant travel, learning new courses or dealing with missed cuts.
He also said he believed he started playing better for the Tigers this spring after finally accepting it would his final college season, having essentially made the decision after talking things over with his parents at Christmas time.
“For me, it’s just finding acceptance in golf,” he said. “Coming into any event, I’m going to try to win it, but not pushing too hard and accepting that it’s not a game where you win every week. So understanding that and getting that through the head and just keep on going.”