Jackson Koivun got the better of Scottie Scheffler at the 3M Open last week.
Koivun’s sensational third-round of 61 gave him the platform he needed to cruise to victory during the final round, while Scheffler will be lamenting his underwhelming second-round 70.
The world number one applied as much pressure as he could on the young Auburn graduate over the weekend, firing rounds of 64 and 63.
However, Scottie Scheffler didn’t make up any ground at all on Jackson Koivun, who shot 61 and 66 over the weekend at the 3M Open.
Koivun was certainly aware of Scheffler’s presence on the leaderboard before the final round at TPC Twin Cities on Sunday.
However, the 21-year-old did a great job of focusing on his own game and blocking out what Scheffler was doing on Sunday.
Scheffler spoke very highly of Koivun after his 3M Open win, and the man from Dallas, Texas, now has a new and very real challenger to his throne.
Jim Nantz predicts what Scottie Scheffler will do after Jackson Koivun’s win
We all know just how competitive Scheffler is.
Finishing second for the fifth time on the PGA Tour this season will have hurt him, there are no two ways about that.
And Jim Nantz predicted that Scheffler will use Koivun’s win as fuel to go on a run now, when speaking on CBS.
“He does not like finishing in second,“ Nantz said.
“This is a player in Scottie Scheffler who was raised to win. He won 95 tournaments as a kid in the Dallas area, junior tournaments.
“I mean, he won, like, 70% of the time that he entered tournaments. So he got addicted to, accustomed to, winning.
“And we’ve seen that over the last four years coming into this year, and it’s just, it feels a little different.
“But this is a long game. He’s not declining. He’s not going anywhere.
“I’m not a betting man, but, you know, we’re going to see him again in the playoffs, and I have a very strong feeling that he’ll win at least one of the playoff events.
“He is going to break through, and he’ll break through in a big way.
“I can’t explain exactly what has been fractionally off this year. It feels like, it’s a little something every week. This week, it was the back nine on Friday.
“And, you know, it’s just not quite to the level of perfection he had, but it’s still, it’s still good enough to be ranked number one in the world.
“It’s impressive, and I’m sure today, he sat back and said, ‘What do I have to do to beat this kid, to topple this kid’?
“Jackson just responded with total nonchalance the entire way.“
Jackson Koivun Presidents Cup team claim made by Jim Nantz
Nantz believes the 21-year-old now has a great chance of making the Presidents Cup team.
“I think, in many ways, that Jackson Koivun has to receive strong consideration now to be on the U.S. President’s Cup team,“ the legendary golf broadcaster said.
“I know we’re about a month away from that team being put together, and Captain Brandt Snedeker will make a lot of great decisions.
“He’ll get some captain’s picks, and this kid’s going to be a force for a long time.
“I think it’s nice sometimes to be able to say that you gave him a chance as a wild card pick, a captain’s pick, before, you know, he goes on a stretch of 25 years, whatever, where he’s gonna make the national teams on his own.
“So that began to circle in my head as I was watching him today in his final round.
“He had a great record as an amateur, as we all know, that included playing in match play events like the Walker Cup.
“Jackson Koivun is going to be on the scene rubbing elbows with the upper echelon of the sport now for decades.“
There should be no debate about this. Koivun will be on the President’s Cup team in September, and if he’s not, there have to be serious questions asked as to why.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
