Jackson Koivun’s Walker Cup motivator might surprise you

Jackson Koivun has already punched his ticket to the PGA Tour. The World No. 1 amateur earned his card through PGA Tour University Accelerated but is deferring his professional career until after another year at Auburn.

While the professional life will come soon enough for Koivun, he still has a few amateur goals to check off before heading to the PGA Tour. One of them arrives this week, where Koivun will lead the Americans against Great Britain and Ireland in the 2025 Walker Cup at Cypress Point. Making the Walker Cup team became important to Koivun when he watched the 2021 Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club. That goal became even more important to the Auburn star when he learned that the 2025 event was being held at Cypress Point, not far from where he grew up in San Jose.

Koivun played in the Cypress Point Classic as a freshman in 2023 and kept a memento from his maiden voyage to the famed club to spur him on to achieve his dream of returning as a member of the 2025 Walker Cup team. The motivator? A golf pencil.

“I’d say the first time I kind of watched the Walker Cup was at Seminole,” Koivun said on Thursday ahead of the Walker Cup. “That was the first time I really got a first glance at it, and from then on out, I just really wanted to be a part of the team. I was a little young to make [the 2023 team at] St Andrews, but it was something I wished I was a part of, and ever since I got to my freshman year, Cypress Point tournament here, I kept a Cypress Point pencil in my yardage book and told myself I’d get a new one once I played the Walker Cup here, so maybe I’ll get my pencil.”

“>

Team USA will look to lean on the World No. 1 amateur quite a bit this weekend at Cypress Point. That’s a burden that Koivun is ready to carry after a summer that saw him go T11-T5-T6 in three PGA Tour starts after he missed the cut at the U.S. Open.

“I would just say experience in the past couple years,” Koivun said when asked about being the team’s anchor. “I’ve been fortunate enough to play a lot of match play, NCAAs, match play tournament out here, all that fun stuff. Just racking up experience, how to play match play, who works well with who, all that stuff. Just leaning on that and whether Cap wants to put me in for all four or what’s his decision for that, it’s up to him, and I’m happy with whatever.”

On Saturday, Koivun and Tommy Morrison lost 3 and 1 to Tyler Weaver and Connor Graham. But Koivun bounced back in the Saturday singles as he dispatched Weaver 4 and 3.

Koivun and the Americans will have their hands full with a talented GB&I squad that got a motivational message from Rory McIlroy before the start of Saturday’s round. But the Americans have the No. 1 amateur on their side, and Jackson Koivun has planned to leave Cypress with a win — and a new pencil — for quite some time.