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.