Jackson Koivun has won the Mark H. McCormack Medal as the leading male player in the 2025 World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Koivun, a 20-year-old from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is a junior at Auburn University. As a freshman in 2024, he won the Southeastern Conference Championship and posted a 3-0 match-play record to help Auburn claim its first-ever NCAA title. He also became the first player to win the Jack Nicklaus, Fred Haskins, Ben Hogan and Phil Mickelson awards in the same season. Koivun was selected to represent the United States in the Arnold Palmer Cup in 2024 and did so again this year.
In 2025, he won the SEC Championship and the NCAA Auburn Regional while also qualifying for his major championship debut at the U.S. Open in June. He has since posted three finishes inside the top 12 on the PGA Tour, at the John Deere Classic, ISCO Championship and Wyndham Championship. He earned a tour card in May via PGA Tour University Accelerated but elected to defer his membership until at least after his junior season at Auburn.
“It’s a huge honor to win this award,” Koivun said. “I’m very grateful to everyone who has helped me and it’s a dream come true. It’s a medal every amateur golfer strives for.”
Koivun will represent the United States in next month’s 50th Walker Cup match against Great Britain and Ireland at Cypress Point. READ MORE
Jimmy Abdo, a little-known Division III college golfer from Minnesota who engineered a Cinderella run to the U.S. Amateur quarterfinals at the Olympic Club earlier this month, has a compelling background.
As a story published last week on Golf Channel’s website relates, the 19-year-old was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in July 2006, just days before the outbreak of the Lebanon War, also called the July War, an armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. His mother, Harriet, who had immigrated from Lebanon to Minnesota at age 16, was in the country to adopt Jimmy and escaped the war-torn land with him in a Black Hawk helicopter.
“I remember sitting with him – he’s as big as my arm, and I’m just looking at him, hearing bombs going off in the background – and I’m like, I know God has given you to me for a reason,” Harriet told the website.
Abdo, who entered the U.S. Amateur ranked 4,292nd in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, caught the attention of Division I coaches with his performance and was weighing offers to transfer from Gustavus Adolphus College, where he played as a freshman last season, the story reported. READ MORE
Tap-Ins
LIV Golf revoked a local golf reporter and podcast host’s media credential for its Team Championship Michigan event last week after Michigan Golf Live podcaster Bill Hobson refused to take down a podcast interview with former LIV Golf player and current broadcaster Pat Perez, The Detroit News first reported. In the podcast, Perez responded to questions about the league’s funding by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and former LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman’s departure. READ MORE
The MENA Golf Tour in the Middle East will relaunch later this year under the leadership of former DP World Tour chief operating officer Keith Waters. READ MORE
A contractor working at Yale University Golf Course died last Thursday after being electrocuted by a downed power line, a Connecticut TV station first reported. The course is currently closed for a renovation by architect Gil Hanse. READ MORE
Compiled by Mike Cullity