Auburn All-American Jackson Koivun secured an individual win and led the No. 2 Auburn Tigers to a team victory at The Hayt golf tournament on March 9 at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Koivun birdied his final hole, finishing with a score of 11-under-par after rounds of 68, 70, and a final round 67.
Koivun said he was aware of the stakes as he approached the last hole. “I look at the leaderboard quite a bit,” Koivun said. “I like to know where I’m at. I knew I probably needed to birdie 18 since my playing partner and I were tied going into the last hole.”
The Tigers finished with a team score of 28-under-par, edging out No. 11 Texas Tech by two strokes and defeating six other top-25 teams, including No. 1 Virginia and No. 15 Alabama. Head coach Nick Clinard’s squad improved its record against ranked competition this season to 37-15-1 (.708) and now holds an 11-2 (.846) record against Alabama since the start of the 2021-22 season.
“Super stoked for Jackson and the team this week,” Clinard said. “Closing out a tournament had been a bit of an Achilles heel for us so far this season, so it obviously feels very rewarding to see us do that here. We will continue to build on this performance and hopefully only play better and better golf from this point forward.”
All five starters for Auburn finished under par for the weekend. Jake Albert shot five-under overall, while Josiah Gilbert finished four-under with two eagles during the event—bringing his career total to fifteen eagles, which ties him for third most in school history. Freshman Logan Reilly and junior Cayden Pope each ended three-under-par.
Sophomore Billy Davis competed as an individual player, finishing three-over but climbing nineteen places on the leaderboard after shooting a final-round 69.
Auburn is scheduled to compete next at the Valspar Collegiate on March 23-24 in Palm City, Florida.