{"id":788696,"date":"2026-07-28T05:25:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T05:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/788696\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T05:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T05:25:14","slug":"where-does-jackson-koivun-stack-up-in-latest-u-s-presidents-cup-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/788696\/","title":{"rendered":"Where does Jackson Koivun stack up in latest U.S. Presidents Cup race?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jackson Koivun\u2019s 3M Open victory<\/a> moved the 21-year-old rookie up 38 spots on the U.S. Presidents Cup points list. He\u2019s now No. 51, behind names such as Matt McCarty, Steven Fisk and Max McGreevy.<\/p>\n

The qualifier, of course, is that Koivun has been a professional for a mere three tournaments.<\/p>\n

Could Koivun make captain Brandt Snedeker\u2019s 12-man squad for this September\u2019s matches at Medinah?<\/p>\n

Before we answer that question, let\u2019s start with the latest standings:<\/p>\n

1. Scottie Scheffler
2. Cameron Young
3. Russell Henley
4. Sam Burns
5. Ben Griffin
6. Collin Morikawa
7. Chris Gotterup
8. J.J. Spaun
9. Wyndham Clark
10. Justin Thomas
11. Xander Schauffele
12. Akshay Bhatia
13. Jacob Bridgeman
14. Harris English
15. Ryan Gerard<\/p>\n

Scheffler and Young are locks, while something crazy would have to happen for Henley and Burns to each drop out of the top six by Aug. 23, when half the team is finalized following the BMW Championship.<\/p>\n

Griffin and Morikawa are probably safe, too, whether they qualify automatically or via captain\u2019s pick. Griffin has bounced back with four top-10s since late April while Morikawa is on the other side of a back injury that halted his early-year momentum.<\/p>\n

Same goes for Gotterup, a three-time winner this year, and Clark, the newly minted two-time U.S. Open champion; they\u2019re both going to be on the team so long as they\u2019re healthy.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s also no chance the veteran Schauffele is left home considering his 10-4 career President Cup record and the fact that he was T-18 or better in all four majors this year.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s nine names, meaning three spots are theoretically still up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a quick breakdown of the top contenders for those openings, in order of where they stack up on the points list:<\/p>\n

Spaun: Last year\u2019s U.S. Open champion went 2-1 in his Ryder Cup debut last fall and won the Valero Texas Open back in April. He\u2019s got three other top-10s this year, including two of those at signature events. Working against Spaun, however, are his seven missed cuts, three of which came in majors before he finally made the weekend at The Open (T-40). One more top-10 probably solidifies Spaun\u2019s place on the team.<\/p>\n

Thomas: Like Schauffele, J.T. owns a stellar record at the Presidents Cup (10-3-2). He also went on a nice run to begin the summer, notching seven straight top-25s from Cadillac to Travelers. He\u2019s only missed one cut this year, and that was at API, his first start back after undergoing a microdiscectomy last November. Data Golf has him currently as the 13th highest-ranked eligible American, but like Spaun, if he has a strong playoff showing, he\u2019s on the squad.<\/p>\n

Bhatia: This is where things get interesting, as Bhatia won the API as part of a torrid spring run that included a T-3 in Phoenix, T-6 at Pebble, T-16 at Riviera and T-13 at The Players. Since then? Bhatia has just one top-10 (T-5, Travelers) and five MCs in 11 worldwide starts.<\/p>\n

Bridgeman: Like Bhatia, Bridgeman did his damage early by winning Genesis and tying for fifth at TPC Sawgrass. He\u2019s only missed one cut all year, but he\u2019s also notched just two top-25s since The Players.<\/p>\n

Gerard: Hasn\u2019t won yet on the PGA Tour, but Gerard does have three runners-up this year, plus a recent T-9 at The Open. The issue is other than his six top-11s this year, he\u2019s got just one other top-25 in 15 starts.<\/p>\n

English: Does the team need another veteran presence? English boasts nine top-25s this year, but just a single top-10 finish and missed cuts at both summer Opens will work against him.<\/p>\n

Maverick McNealy: He\u2019s currently No. 16 in points and like English has also been painting his Data Golf profile green with nine top-25s this year. But his last finish better than T-10? A third at last year\u2019s BMW, almost a year ago.<\/p>\n

Patrick Cantlay: One spot below McNealy, though Cantlay is no stranger to these team events. He has cooled a bit since his run of four straight top-12s that included a T-12 at the Masters, and when it comes to a potential final captain\u2019s pick, it might be more beneficial to go with more of a long-term play.<\/p>\n

Patrick Reed: The current Race to Dubai No. 1 will be eligible for a pick after his LIV suspension ends next month. He won twice in three starts on the DP World Tour to begin the year, then added a T-12 at the Masters and T-10 at the PGA. The negative here is he\u2019s got no top-10s since the PGA.<\/p>\n

Figuring I can stop before diving into Kurt Kitayama\u2019s numbers, Koivun is among 10 names for three spots in this exercise.<\/p>\n

While Koivun has only played three tournaments as a pro \u2013 he missed the cut in his pro debut at John Deere before a T-10 at Isco \u2013 he does own a T-23 at the U.S. Open as an amateur this summer and posted four top-11s in PGA Tour starts last summer, which is part of the Presidents Cup qualifying window \u2013 T-11, Deere; T-6, Isco; T-5, Wyndham; T-4, Procore.<\/p>\n

This past spring for Auburn, he won six times, including the SEC Championship by seven shots.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s 30th in the Data Golf rankings, now ahead of Bhatia, Bridgeman and Reed.<\/p>\n

When Ludvig \u00c5berg was selected to the 2023 European Ryder Cup team just months after turning pro, his resum\u00e9 was objectively less impressive than Koivun\u2019s. He had just one top-10 on the PGA Tour at the time, a T-4 at the 2023 Deere, plus another T-4 at the DPWT\u2019s Czech Masters before his European Masters win prompted Luke Donald to call and offer \u00c5berg a spot. \u00c5berg has also not played a major yet, let alone been a low amateur like Koivun at Shinnecock, and he had two fewer wins in his final college semester.<\/p>\n

And yet, \u00c5berg has now played two Ryder Cups, going 4-4 but earning valuable experience to one day help take the reins from Rory McIlroy and Co.<\/p>\n

The American core led by Scheffler isn\u2019t nearly as old, but it certainly wouldn\u2019t hurt to give Koivun, most likely a future superstar, some early Cup experience at Medinah. It\u2019s not like he\u2019s a total wild card either; it\u2019s just his body of work \u2013 whatever that looks like come late August \u2013 will be a small sample size.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the verdict? Koivun is probably behind Spaun and Thomas on the pecking order, but when it comes to who would fill that 12th spot if the team was finalized today, there\u2019s a very good argument to be made that Koivun is ahead of, or at least on par, with the rest of those names.<\/p>\n

Either way, Sneds\u2019 job just got harder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jackson Koivun\u2019s 3M Open victory moved the 21-year-old rookie up 38 spots on the U.S. Presidents Cup points…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-788696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}