Rising Golf Star Jackson Koivun's Journey as a U.S. Amateur

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00:00I think I got to start with where I first saw you, and this was at the U.S.

00:04Amateur at Ridgewood, and this happened to be,

00:08I would say, one of my biggest golf channel

00:12media events that I had been put on to start my media career. Right.

00:16And I was just kind of doing some course research,

00:20just going out of the golf course.

00:22Honestly, I was probably doing too much research.

00:24I was like overpreparing.

00:25It was still stroke play, I think, even in the first round.

00:28And I'm on the 17th hole, which was one of my favorite holes at Ridgewood.

00:32And I happened to see a young guy

00:36who happened to be you on the 17th fairway.

00:39And you absolutely just nuked this three would going for that green and two.

00:44And it was like a quick swing.

00:45I could tell you there's a ton of speed in there.

00:48And, you know, I'd watched a bunch of players that day already.

00:51And I was like, this guy's got to be really good because, you know,

00:54I recognize a fair amount of names on the USM leaderboard.

00:58But, you know, when you're out there falling, you don't know whose group is who.

01:02And sometimes you just don't put a face with the name.

01:04And I was like, I'm going to look this cat up.

01:06And it was like Jackson Coven. OK, he's in high school. He's a junior.

01:09Oh, he's the number one junior.

01:10He's heading to Auburn in a little over a year.

01:12And here we are, Jackson.

01:14I mean, you've come quite, quite a long way since that USM at Ridgewood.

01:19Yeah. Yeah, that was a great that was a great venue.

01:22I really like that course.

01:23It kind of ate me up.

01:25Arcola kind of ate me up, but it's all right.

01:28And but ever since then, I've kind of

01:33grown a little bit, obviously, physically and mentally.

01:36And yeah, progress the game a little bit, too.

01:38Yeah. So up to that point, how would you describe your junior golf career?

01:43Were you somebody that kind of wanted pretty much every single stage

01:46or did you kind of find yourself a little waiter in your junior process?

01:50I mean, being number one in the junior in the country,

01:52obviously you had to be pretty good from the get go.

01:55Yeah, I had I had a good amount of success when I was younger.

01:59I played all like the U.S.

02:00kid stuff and I was always competing and then got into the A.J.

02:04G.A. when I was a freshman.

02:07And yeah, I kind of just stayed there for the rest of my junior career.

02:10I mean, I started playing all the lead in series my senior summer.

02:14And now I'm here.

02:16And I told everybody here, if you don't know who Jackson Coven is, you're going to.

02:21And Jackson, I'm about to gassy up if you don't mind.

02:23You're the Fred Haskins Award winner.

02:26You were the first Auburn player in history to win the Haskins

02:29and the first freshman to be awarded that award

02:32since Justin Thomas at Alabama back in 2012.

02:35You won the Phil Mickelson Award All-American individual runner up,

02:39which we need to talk about because I saw a video that was absolutely

02:44chaos on that on that ninth hole.

02:46You're finishing up on Ben Hogan Award winner, SEC player of the year,

02:49freshman of the year. You guys get it.

02:51This guy is absolutely a bona fide stud.

02:55And why don't we touch on that national championship

02:59individual stroke play, because you were runner up and you absolutely flush

03:04a shot into that ninth hole.

03:06You're one back. You need a birdie. And what happens?

03:09Oh, I had a little too good.

03:11I just nailed the flagstick.

03:12My coach told me to aim a little right of the flag and I should have listened

03:15to him, but it was a pretty good shot.

03:19I probably would have gone to maybe eight feet if it didn't hit the flag.

03:23It also could have had the chance to ride down the flag and go in,

03:26but ended up in the bunker.

03:28And then I gave the bunker shot a little scared, too.

03:30I think it was. Oh, man.

03:32But I needed a birdie there to get in the playoff.

03:35But I mean, we'll be back next year and try to get it again.

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