This week’s Procore Championship in Napa, Cali., served as a de facto Ryder Cup training camp for American captain Keegan Bradley and Team USA. Eleven of the 12 members were in Napa this week, with 10 teeing it up in the first event of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Fall season. Xander Schauffele, whose son was just born, did not make the trip. Bryson DeChambeau participated in the off-course festivities but is not eligible to play since he is not a PGA Tour member.
The first few days in wine country have seen most of Team USA perform admirably with a trip to Bethpage Black on the horizon. Ben Griffin holds the 54-hole lead. Scottie Scheffler fired a third-round 64 to get within striking distance. Russell Henley and J.J. Spaun put themselves in position for a weekend run at Silverado Resort before stumbling on Saturday.
But between Griffin and Scheffler lurks a name that might soon become a fixture at future Ryder Cups. A name that just delivered a win of his own for the United States at the Walker Cup at Cypress Point.
Jackson Koivun.
The World No. 1 amateur was Team USA’s anchor at last week’s 17-9 romp over Great Britain and Ireland on the Monterey Peninsula. Koivun went out first in all four sessions for captain Nathan Smith. He went 3-1, including tone-setting wins in both singles sessions. Koivun’s 3 and 2 win over Tyler Weaver in Sunday singles started an avalanche that saw the U.S. win 8.5-1.5 to secure the cup.
Koivun’s Walker Cup performance was just the latest in an impressive summer run that has seen the Auburn star, who already secured his PGA Tour card through PGA Tour University Accelerated, continue to announce himself as a future force. Koivun missed the cut at the U.S. Open before going T11-T6-T5 in his next three PGA Tour starts. Then, he showed up at Cypress Point and helped carry the U.S. Walker Cup team to a resounding victory.
“I think we’ve all watched Jackson all year, all summer, how incredible he’s played, and when he closed out his match, I said, “Thank you for playing.” It was just an honor for me to have him on my team,” Smith said of Koivun last Sunday. “I think in any sport, if you’re a coach or captain, when your best player is your hardest working player and sets the tone for the team and just brings the level of professionalism, we got in the cart after his match, and he jumped in and he was going to drive the cart. I said, ‘Yeah, go drive the cart, you’ve been driving it all week. I’m just going to ride along in the passenger side.’ That sums it up.”
Koivun’s T5 finish at the Wyndham Championship got him into this week’s Procore Championship, where the team he hopes to one day be a part of is preparing for a heavily anticipated showdown at Bethpage Black in two weeks. But while Koivun is still an amateur — he’ll take up professional status whenever he decides to leave Auburn — he has already proven he belongs on the PGA Tour. So it was no surprise that he ran into Ryder Cup team member Russell Henley on Friday before the round and called his shot.
“I ran into Russell Henley on the range and told him I was going to catch him, so that was my objective,” Koivun said Friday after his round.
Koivun made good on his promise, firing a second-round 66 to jump into a tie for second place alongside Henley. That sizzling 66 included a majestic 3 iron that Koivun hit to two feet, seven inches for eagle on the par-5 12th hole.
On Saturday, as Henley and Spaun slid down the board, it was Koivun who continued to mount the charge toward Griffin at the top of the leaderboard. He got off to a shaky start with back-to-back bogeys on three and four, but responded with birdies at eight and 11. He then rolled in a 43-foot eagle putt on 12 and made birdies on 14 and 15 to shoot 4 under to put himself in the final group at 15 under. Koivun will start Sunday’s final round one shot back of Griffin.
“[I’m going to] try not to treat it any differently and just go play golf,” Koivun told NBC after the round when asked about playing in the final group on a PGA Tour Sunday for the first time in his career.
Koivun spent Saturday paired with U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun, who will be a Ryder Cup rookie at Bethpage. He beat him by four and beat Henley by six. He picked up two shots on Griffin. But Scheffler is just one shot behind him after the World No. 1 shook off the rust to fire an 8-under 64 that included 10 birdies and a double bogey.
Koivun will enter the Sunday cauldron on Sunday, hoping to track down one member of Team USA while holding off the game’s best player to become the second amateur to win a PGA Tour event in the last 30 years.
It’s a tall task, but it’s also something he’s built for.
“I’m trying to become the best, and I’ve just got to keep putting myself in situations that I can perform well in, and practicing my tail off in the offseason or when I’m not competing just to get better,” Koivun said.
That mentality has seen the 20-year-old already punch his ticket to the PGA Tour, deliver a Walker Cup and has him in position to hoist a PGA Tour trophy as an amateur on Sunday.
This week at the Procore was all about the Ryder Cup, with the tournament fading into the background amid a flurry of questions about pairings, chemistry, golf balls and decisions not made. However, through 54 holes in Napa, Team USA is seeing some things it hoped for, and one thing that it will likely see more of in the future as Jackson Koivun’s star continues to rise.
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