Quote:For a while, Koivun was a well-kept secret. He played JTNC but not much on the bigger American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) stage. “There’s not much of that in California,” Meghan said. “We went to Arizona a few times, but that was about it.”
He won the 2021 Northern California Junior Championship, but for the most part Koivun was limited by the Covid pandemic, sequestered in his room like everyone else for about a year and a half of his first three years at Mitty High School in San Jose. Often, he would drive to Sacramento, where more was open than it was back home, to play golf with friends.
The family moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., for Koivun’s senior year, part of a plan that came down to golf. By switching to an online curriculum for his last year, Koivun would be freed up to go to more big tournaments, and by doing that he would get in front of more SEC coaches.
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Auburn coach Nick Clinard landed a player in Koivun who was also recruited by pretty much every other big school you can think of in the Southeast and elsewhere.
https://blog.ncga.org/jackson-koivun-hit...-of-norcal
Quote:...chose Auburn over Duke, Illinois, North Carolina, Pepperdine, SMU, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest.https://auburntigers.com/sports/mens-gol...son-koivun
Quote:"We got to know him as a young kid, he went to camp obviously all the way from San Jose. Played in the future Masters down in Dothan, so I think he got to know kind of the Dothan and Auburn area and I think he kind of fell in love with it," head coach Nick Clinard told Auburn247. "I think he knew he probably wanted to play in the southeast... I've got pictures of him as a little 12- or 13-year old wearing an Auburn sweatshirt. His mom sent me pictures of them in the bookstore buying a bunch of Auburn gear. Sometimes if you know, you know even as a young kid. He's a guy we pinpointed early on just because he was a winner."https://247sports.com/college/auburn/art...287638816/
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While college golf recruiting isn't quite to the same level you see in say SEC football recruiting, it still follows a similar blueprint and can have some big-time battles. For Clinard, Koivun was quickly identified as a can't-miss prospect for him.
Ultimately, he obviously ended up being a guy Auburn didn't miss out on.
"Just kind of got to know him, got to know his family, got to know his swing teacher Fred Garcia out there in San Jose and I think he just felt comfortable. He felt comfortable with us as coaches and felt comfortable with our facilities," Clinard said. "We felt like we were in a really good spot recruiting him and then we never knew he'd probably be this good. We knew he was a very talented kid that won a lot even in the northern Cal section and playing a lot of junior golf. He played a lot and he was a winner. He shot a lot of red numbers and won a lot of junior golf tournaments and he just kept progressing and progressing and he's gotten better every year.
"If you look all the way back to when he was 13, he's improved every year and we're just glad he chose the orange and blue and came to AU. We try to respect their privacy, but he was a guy that we pinpointed early on that was a take for us. We knew he was going to be one of the top five juniors in the country and he ended up being the best player in the country in his class. It was a great phone call to get. We felt good about it, but you never know until it's done."
What truly ended up sealing the deal for Koivun and his family was his official visit to campus. Koivun and his parents spent "about eight hours" on campus checking things out with Clinard and assistant coach Chris Williams, as he got a much better taste of what life would be like at Auburn should he end up committing.
That was the moment he knew he was going to be a Tiger.
"We saw everything there was to see about Auburn and it was a great visit," Jackson's mother, Meghan Koivun, told Auburn247. "He felt very comfortable there. He got in the car after it was all done and said, 'I don't want to go home. I want to stay here and get to work.' That pretty much sealed the deal."
Looks like he got to Auburn before anyone else got on his radar.