‘I will always call this place home’: As all-timer Jackson Koivun gears up for postseason, he’s bent on winning ‘for Auburn’
A generational talent with eyes on the PGA Tour — and plans of being a proud AU alum — Koivun now hopes to make the most of his time as an active player for “the greatest school in the world.”
Jackson Koivun is the world’s No. 1 amateur, and he’s an Auburn Tiger. “I just think it’s the greatest school in the world,” he said this past week, at Auburn’s practice facility.
Those two facts are ones the Auburn people are probably still resolving, at their own pace. Maybe it won’t hit everyone until he’s winning on the PGA Tour. Koivun is not only the best amateur in the game, but it isn’t close: He has the world’s 14th-best rating in strokes gained per Official World Golf Ranking — among all golfers, all the superstars — and no other amateur is in the top 100. He’s one of the most dominant players in the history of collegiate golf, having won five of his last seven tournaments, and as a freshman becoming the first player ever to win the Haskins Award, Jack Nicklaus Award, Ben Hogan Award and Phil Mickelson Award all in the same season. He’s a generational college player, and seems for all the world to be a generationally sure-fire pro prospect. All that, and he has a strong opinion on Auburn’s all-time Mount Rushmore.
If you’re wondering: “I mean, you’ve got to think Bo, Charles Barkley, Cam Newton,” Koivun smiled. “You’ve got to kind of think those three are on a different pedestal.”
He’s enjoyed his time at Auburn enough to come back for his junior season this season, holding off on getting his PGA Tour card for another year. Set to graduate soon, he’s officially undecided on what he’s doing next year — but even the most diehard Auburn supporters should see that it’d be tough to pass up the PGA Tour yet again.
Asked about a more distant future — 10 years down the line, 15 years down the line, with wherever his golf career takes him — he said he wants Auburn to still be his school, to be the school he comes back to and roots for as an alum.
“Of course. I will always call this place my home, and just to come back to as many football games and as much stuff as I can,” he said. “I’m just excited for the progression of where Auburn’s going to be in 10 years.”
But first: The SEC Championship begins today at Seaside Golf Club at St. Simons Island, Ga. The top eight teams after three rounds of stroke play will be put into a match-play bracket beginning Saturday. The NCAA postseason begins May 18. Koivun isn’t that proud alum just yet — he’s still an active player, still wearing the AU on the course — and he’s bent on making the most of whatever time he has left being able to represent Auburn in collegiate competition.
“That’s kind of my mindset right now,” Koivun said. “I’m going to go out there and play well for Auburn, and just try to get us to where we need to be and trust the guys behind me that they’re thinking the same thing. I know we have the firepower to win an SEC or national championship.”
Here’s how it can happen — and how Koivun came to Auburn in the first place: