FedEx Cup boost for Power as Koivun wins maiden title
Seamus Power
Seamus Power racked up his first individual top 10 of the season in the 3M Open as Jackson Koivun announced his arrival as a new superstar with a three-shot win in just his third start as a professional.
The 21-year-old held off a charging world number one Scottie Scheffler to win with a tournament scoring record of 25-under 259 and set the hype machine in motion.
Not even a Sunday charge by Scheffler, who started on the same mark as Power and shot an eight-under 63 to rack up his fifth runner-up finish of the season.
"All throughout the crowd I kept hearing, 'Scottie's coming, Scottie's coming,'" Koivun told CBS after his win.
"I just tried to tone that out and keep playing the golf I knew I could."
It was Scheffler's 41st round of 64 or lower on the PGA Tour in the last five years — 17 more than Eric Cole, who is the next best with 24.
But Koivun, who turned professional just last month after postponing his graduation via the PGA University route to the Tour by 12 months because he felt he wasn't ready, shot a brilliant 66, hitting his last 21 greens in regulation as he backed up Saturday's 61 in style.
"That's what we train for," said Koivun, who jumped to70th in the FedEx Cup standings, which is right on the cutoff for the first Playoff event in three weeks.
"That's the position we all strive to be in... Once you're finally in it, you've just got to keep your head down and commit to every single golf shot."
As for th winning moment, he said: "I think I did a really good job this week of staying level-headed, but I felt like that was an appropriate time to show some emotions."
"My best trait? I would say my mentality. Sometimes I watch guys hit on the range, and I don't feel like I'm the most talented out there, but if I can go out there and believe and use my brain to my advantage, then that's definitely kind of like a superpower."
As for his plans, he said: "I'm going to try to cherish this tonight and then mental reset... There's still work to do to hopefully make that FedExCup."
Scheffler has a formidable lead at the top, and he was left to rue two slow nine-hole stretches.
"I think I was maybe six shots back to start the day, but I was three shots back of second maybe, something like that," he said.
"Depending on how Jackson played, I knew I was going to need a really low number regardless. I wanted to get something really low on the front nine and kind of put myself on the leaderboard.
"I didn't quite have that, I think I was only three under on the front so I wasn't able to really apply too much pressure early on.
"Overall, it was a pretty solid week," he said. "Sometimes on these types of courses you can't really have too many off nines and I felt like for me this week, maybe back nine Friday and front nine Saturday kind of cost me, that little stretch."
Power also started the final day six shots behind Koivun, but while he birdied the first and sixth, he bogeyed the ninth and could pick up just two shots on the back nine.
A 68 left him tied for 10th on 17-under for his first top 10 since he tied for 10th playing alongside Matti Schmid in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
The West Waterford man picked up $222,200 and jumped 11 spots to 104th in the FedEx Cup standings, with the top 100 at the end of the season fully exempt next year.
He still has this week's Rocket Mortgage Classic and the Wyndham Championship to play before the cutoff, and like Koivun, a chance to make the top 70 who qualify for the first playoff event in Memphis.
