Waterford’s Séamus Power can put his feet up and say “job well done” after his performace at the 3M Open as the 39-year-old secured his second top-10 finish of the year and his first as an individual, posting a final round 68 at TPC Twin Cities to bring his total tally to 17-under.
Power played his best golf of the year in Minnesota, with his best work coming in Saturday’s eight-under 63 and he backed that up again with a three-under-par Sunday. Power fired early with a birdie at the first before adding another at the sixth. Power’s only bogey came at the par-4 ninth.
The two-time PGA TOUR winner made two more birdies on the back to squeeze into T10. Power has had his run with injuries but a weekend like this one will fill him with a lot of confidence knowing that there is fight in the Déise man yet.
21-year-old Jackson Koivun proved why he is one of the biggest golf prospects as he secured his first win in just his third start on tour with a brilliant bogey free five-under final round to take himself to 25-under, three strokes ahead of Scottie Scheffler who took home his fifth runners up finish of the year.
Koivun, who came off a 61 finish in Saturday’s third round made three birdies on the front nine before adding two more on the back nine to post a 66. The youngster stood to the occasion, showing great bottle in sealing the deal.
“All throughout the crowd I kept hearing, ‘Scottie’s coming. Scottie’s coming,’” the 21-year-old Koivun said. “I just tried to tune that out and keep playing the golf I knew I could.”
Earning $1,584,000 for his win in Minnesota, Koivun also jumped 124 spots in the FedExCup into 70th, the last place above the cut for the Playoffs with two regular season events remaining on the schedule.
Koivun is the fourth rookie to win on the PGA TOUR this season.
“I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better over the past couple years of being able to beat guys with my mentality,” said Koivun. “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.”
Scheffler was five groups ahead of Koivun but propelled himself into contention with a bogey-free eight-under-par 63. Scheffler is still looking to add to his lone win this season which came in January.
“We’re seeing a lot of really, really good young talent in the game today,” Scheffler said. “When you see the guys come out of college, they’re really, really prepared, even more prepared than we were coming out.”
Disappointed with the result but happy with the performance, Scheffler added; “This week was tremendous. The fans were great this week, the tournament was really solid. Was able to do some good stuff and hear some cheers. It was definitely a lot of fun with the fans this week.”
There was a four way tie for T3 as Hideki Matsuyama, Brian Harman, Chandler Phillips, and Denny McCarthy all finished on 20-under.
Given the average winning score at the 3M Open is 19-under, many players may feel unfortunate to have missed out. But it also underlines Jackson Koivun’s immense potential and suggests he has what it takes to become one of golf’s next big stars.
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