Who Is Jackson Koivun? Why He’s the 2026 Austin Championship Favorite

Jackson Koivun is a 21-year-old PGA Tour rookie from Auburn who won the 3M Open in July in just his third start as a pro, and as of Wednesday morning he is the betting favorite for the 2026 Austin Championship. He went from co-favorite to outright favorite overnight, shortening to +1200 at Fanatics and bet365. Our read: the talent is real, but +1200 is too short for his fall form, and the top-20 market is the better way in.

Here is who he is, why the money moved, and what we would actually do with him at Barton Creek this week.

Who is Jackson Koivun?

Jackson Koivun is a Northern California native who played college golf at Auburn and turned professional after the 2026 U.S. Open, where he finished tied for 23rd as an amateur. He had already shown up on Tour before that. At the 2025 Procore Championship in Napa, still an amateur, he tied for fourth.

The pro career started with a missed cut at the John Deere Classic. Then it took off fast. He tied for 10th at the ISCO Championship the next week, and two weeks after that he won the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities at 25 under, three shots clear of Scottie Scheffler. Third pro start. Beating the best player in the world down the stretch. That is why his name moves betting markets.

How has Jackson Koivun played since the 3M Open?

Jackson Koivun has made every cut since his 3M Open win, but he has posted only one top-10 in six starts since then: a tie for fifth at the Biltmore Championship Asheville in September. The rest were finishes between 21st and 65th, including a T65 at the Bank of Utah Championship and a T21 at last week’s World Wide Technology Championship.

The table below lists every Jackson Koivun start in 2026, from the PGA Tour and ESPN results pages, checked on Wednesday, November 11.

Event (2026)	Finish	Score
U.S. Open (amateur)	T23	+5
John Deere Classic	Missed cut	+1
ISCO Championship	T10	-12
3M Open	Won	-25
Rocket Classic	T31	-8
Wyndham Championship	T29	-8
FedEx St. Jude Championship	T24	-3
Biltmore Championship Asheville	T5	-21
Bank of Utah Championship	T65	-8
World Wide Technology Championship	T21	-15

So, one win, two other top-10s, and a lot of middle of the pack. Nothing alarming. But nothing in the last two months says he should be the shortest price on the board either.

Jackson Koivun odds for the 2026 Austin Championship

Jackson Koivun‘s best outright price for the 2026 Austin Championship was +1550 at DraftKings on Wednesday morning, November 11, with Fanatics and bet365 at +1200 and FanDuel at +1300. He is now shorter than Doug Ghim at four of five books and level with him at Prophet X.

That is a real move. On Tuesday morning the two were dead level at FanDuel, Fanatics, and bet365, and Ghim was the shorter of the two at Prophet X. Since then Koivun came in two full points at three books, and Ghim drifted out at the same three.

The table below compares the Jackson Koivun and Doug Ghim winner prices from our odds pulls at 8:07 AM Central on Tuesday, November 10, and 5:44 AM Central on Wednesday, November 11, 2026.

Book	Koivun Tue	Koivun Wed	Ghim Tue	Ghim Wed
DraftKings	+1550	+1550	+1650	+1650
FanDuel	+1500	+1300	+1500	+1600
Fanatics	+1400	+1200	+1400	+1600
bet365	+1400	+1200	+1400	+1600
Prophet X	+1568	+1519	+1470	+1519

Is +1200 a fair number? It implies about a 7.7 percent chance to win. The +1550 at DraftKings is closer to 6.1 percent. Nobody has played a single competitive round at the Fazio Canyons Course, so there is no course history to lean on. The market is paying for the 3M Open ceiling. We would not chase the move.

How to bet Jackson Koivun at the Austin Championship

The better Jackson Koivun bet at the 2026 Austin Championship is the top 20, which was -110 at DraftKings on Wednesday morning. He has finished 31st or better in six of his last seven starts, so a top 20 asks for a small step up on a field with very few stars, not a career week.

The top 10 was +194 at DraftKings, and Prophet X had the with-ties version at +196. Both are fine as a second piece. If you want the outright anyway, it has to be the +1550 and not the +1200. That gap is too big to give away on a player whose last top-10 was in September. Shop the rest of the field in the best golf odds this week before you lock anything in.

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Jackson Koivun in DFS this week

Jackson Koivun is 10,400 on the DraftKings main slate, more than Ghim at 9,800, according to the salaries read on this week’s preview shows, with Koivun projected around 27 percent owned and Ghim around 32. Paying the top price for a player with one top-10 since July is a tough sell in cash games. In tournaments he makes more sense if the field piles onto Ghim instead.

If you are new to building lineups around salary and ownership, start with how golf DFS scoring and salaries work. And if you would rather weight approach play, Bermuda putting, and par-5 scoring yourself than trust anyone’s top 10, here is how the Rabbit Hole model builder works.

What kind of course is Barton Creek?

The Fazio Canyons Course at Omni Barton Creek plays as a par 72 at 7,451 yards on the tournament card, with Bermuda greens and four par 5s between 562 and 591 yards. No par 4 reaches 500 yards. It is a first-year venue, so who fits it is still a guess for everyone, Koivun included. For the full field and the other names in Austin, see our 2026 Austin Championship field breakdown.

Frequently asked questions

How old is Jackson Koivun?

Jackson Koivun is 21, according to his PGA Tour profile. He won the 2026 3M Open at that age, 35 days after his final round as an amateur at the U.S. Open.

When does the 2026 Austin Championship start?

The first round is Thursday, November 12, and the event finishes Sunday, November 15, 2026. The purse is 6 million dollars with 500 FedExCup points to the winner, and the RSM Classic the following week closes the PGA Tour’s fall schedule.

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