PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Jackson Koivun was added to the U.S. team for the Presidents Cup on Tuesday just three months after leaving Auburn, one of two newcomers to an American team that hasn't lost in 28 years.
Koivun, who won the 3M Open in his third start as a professional and qualified for the PGA Tour postseason in just five tournaments, is the first player since Jordan Spieth in 2013 to start a year without a tour card and play in the Presidents
Cup.
“I'm happy took a chance on me. I'm going to give it my all,” Koivun said.
U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker also took Presidents Cup newcomer Jacob Bridgeman, who won at Riviera this year. Snedeker passed over Ryan Gerard, the No. 22 player in the world who contended at the Tour Championship and finished third.
Snedeker said he and his assistants took a hard look at everyone in the mix before settling on Koivun, a 21-year-old who had such a sterling amateur career that he could have joined the tour through the PGA Tour University ranking system after his sophomore year.
“These decisions are always tough,” Snedeker said. “It comes down to your gut instincts on some of these things. You can look at stats all you want, past performances all you want, but you have to have a feeling. For some reason, I just had a gut feeling. We'll see how that turns out.
“But I have full confidence he's ready for the challenge.”
The six Americans who qualified on points were Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns, Collin Morikawa and Russell Henley. Snedeker's other picks were not surprising — Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Chris Gotterup, who has won three times this year.
International captain Geoff Ogilvy picked a pair of Canadians in Corey Conners and Nick Taylor. He also took Ryo Hisatsune, who turns 23 next week. It will be the first time since 1998 the International team has two Japanese players, with Hideki Matsuyama already earning one of the six automatic spots.
The Presidents Cup is Sept. 24-27 at Medinah, which has been entirely renovated by Ogilvy's Australia-based golf course design company.
Ogilvy didn't have the same depth from which to choose, and two of his options are South Africans who are European tour members — Casey Jarvis and Jayden Schaper, both of whom did their best work early in the season.
He went with Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa, who has a 3-1-1 record in his two previous appearances; Cognizant Classic winner Nico Echavarria of Colombia; and Sungjae Im, a staple on the International team since his iron play wowed the International team at Royal Melbourne in 2019.
They join automatic qualifiers Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim of South Korea, Min Woo Lee of Australia and British Open champion Ryan Fox.
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