Jackson Koivun’s golf star can be found in John Deere classic

This week at the 2025 John Deere Classic, it starts with talking about famous people on the court who don’t usually stop in the four cities on the weekend of July 4.

Rickie Fowler has not played John Deere in 15 years before the game Thursday. Max Homa’s search for his better golf ego brought him into TPC Deere Run. Tom Kim, Jason Day and Sungjae Im were also on the scene. All of this led to John Deere classic officials in the strongest field in the official world golf ranking era. Maybe it’s the effect of the signature event model, maybe it’s a more competitive, more beautiful tour that forces bigger names to play bigger names than they usually and in different regions, rather than their normal stomping grounds.

But while this absorbs all the early oxygen, John Deere Classic’s true legacy bubbles under the surface again.

John Deere Classic has created 24 first-time winners since 1970, the most of all tours. John Deere Classic is known for the launch pad of the game’s next big star. It is known for offering sponsor waivers to the top amateurs who later returned to the competition and sometimes won in TPC Deere Run.

Roger Maltbie and David Toms both won their first professional victory at Deere. The John Deere Legend is the 72nd hole in which Jordan Spieth won the playoffs and wins in 2013. Spieth, 19, was the sponsor invitation that week, and the victory helped him move toward the star.

This week in the four cities, no difference. The field includes budding star Luke Clanton, who was an invitational last year to a patron and has only recently become a professional player. 2025 NCAA individual champion Michael La Sasso competed, and so did 2025 Haskins winner David Ford and all-American Ben James.

Then there was Jackson Koivun, who left Auburn University and picked up the PGA Tour Card he won through PGA Tour University and was voted as one of the next big stars in golf. Koivun is the No. 1 player in amateur golf rankings worldwide, becoming the first player to win all four major men’s college golf awards last year, winning the Haskins Award, Jack Nicklaus Award, Ben Hogan Award and Phil Mickelson Award.

Koivun has played three PGA Tour games this season. He made cuts at the Farmers Insurance Open and Arnold Palmer’s invitational tournament, and then missed one at the U.S. Open.

It all shows that Koivun is the next big event in the PGA Tour, and he arrives at TPC Deere Run, fully understanding the intention of the game and the venue to blossom in the young guns before him.

“It’s cool to have a bunch of sponsor exemptions and hobbyists doing well here,” Coyvan said Wednesday. “It just shows that it’s feasible. Just leave it in my mind and trust my game and myself.”

Koivun opened the game in an unpopular single round before an exciting Friday effort that made him shoot a 64 in a scramble for the battle as he shot seven birdies.

“I just went out on the first tee and it felt good,” Coyvan said of Friday’s round. “Did some early birdies just trying to keep the train moving forward. Yesterday, I played a solid performance on the tee and it looked a lot.”

The wind circled on Saturday, and Koivun had a long time to get into trouble, causing double taboos on the sixth hole of the 4 stroke. But he responded to the birds with eight points, 10, 11, 13 and 14. He stumbled upon a bogey at the age of 15, but another birdie at No. 17 wiped it off, hitting a third of the under-68 and entering the house under-11. He will win the first four shots from leader and defending champion Davis Thompson in the final round of Sunday.

Koivun ranked seventh in stroke: tees for the week and sixth. His goal match (-2.148 per leg) has been poor, but he still has a chance to lower and join Scott Verplank, Phil Mickelson and Nick Dunlap, the only amateur to win on the PGA Tour since 1985.

“I just wanted to climb the rankings as much as I could,” Coyvan said of his mentality entering Sunday. “I know I’ll play well tomorrow and I can definitely get involved. Just go there and have fun.”

The fun of free wheels is a luxury for young people in life and golf. Koivun is already working to return to Auburn’s junior season and he doesn’t have to worry about Sunday’s FedEx Cup points or last-minute dash to qualify for the open championship. He is not trying to save Ka, keep his career or work hard to return to the level he once occupied. He was just playing golf, knowing that everything was in front of him.

It was a gift of spectacular promise and a broad future that would be Koivun’s biggest asset on Sunday when he tried to announce his arrival in TPC Deere Run rage.

Twenty players will start Sunday’s final round in Thompson’s leading five-shot game, and Koivun is probably the next big thing on the PGA Tour, more in the tank than anyone on the rankings. He won’t be in the spotlight on Sunday. The focus will be on Thompson’s repeated pursuit, Homa’s search for his old self, and maybe Matt Kuchar is trying to return to the winner’s circle for the last time.

But on the route to produce birds, Koivun will have the opportunity to free his driver and try to underestimate the search for victory that can ignite his expected rise.

Jackson Koivun expects a lot. On Sunday, he will have the opportunity to create a powerful opening chapter on his PGA tour. This story has been filled with stories of hope that rarely appears – a hope that often surfaces in John Deere Classic.