SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – Thirty years ago, Tiger Woods, a pubescent pro, would drive to what was then 7580 Commerce Center Drive in Orlando, Florida, enter through a side door at Golf Channel HQ and duck into an editing booth to review video of past Open Championships.
Gleaning bits of historical information useful to future endeavors.
Jackson Koivun has been called the best amateur since Woods and, perhaps unbeknownst to him, has employed a similar, more modern manner of major preparation.
Koivun, who announced Friday that he will turn pro after this week, is making his second U.S. Open start at Shinnecock Hills. Before arriving at the course, he did some visual reconnaissance.
“I watched some YouTube videos from 2018 to see some lines and stuff,” he said Monday in his pre-championship press conference.
“But I got out here pretty early this week, trying to figure out start lines off the tees and where my misses are and kind of go from there. Just doing a lot of chipping and putting work, but understanding that the golf course is going to change some Thursday.”
Koivun was 13 the last time Shinnecock hosted the national championship. Before becoming a two-time national champion and multiple player of the year at Auburn, he was a driven junior, watching pros fail in spectacular ways during the ’18 U.S. Open.
“I just remember it looked really hard. Obviously, guys are hitting moving balls on the green, it’s dicey,” Koivun said, in reference to Phil Mickelson swatting a runaway ball on the 13th green in Round 3.
“You watch some guys just hit some shots in places, and when you’re younger, it’s easier to say, well, how did he do that? Now you come out here, and you’re like, OK, well, that makes a lot more sense now.”
This is U.S. Open No. 2 for Koivun, who shot 72-76 to miss the cut last year at Oakmont. The two venues are vastly different in design but equally difficult, both adverse to red numbers.
Koivun, too, is not the same as he was in ’25. “Maturity,” he said, was the biggest difference between 20- and 21-year-old Jackson.
“I just gave myself another year to grow, grow as a human being, mentally and physically and everything like that,” he said.
That growth will be tested come Thursday. He’s already played 27 holes since Sunday and is trying to engrain a “par is good” philosophy.
Koivun, like Woods before him, is the world’s best amateur. For a few more days. And then he will no longer play with an ‘a’ next to his name. Asked Monday if he was feeling the looming pressure of professional life, “Not really,” he replied. “I’m just coming out here, trying to have fun and just enjoy it.”
