Tour card within Jackson Koivun s grasp at Arnold Palmer Invitational

BAY HILL – After seeing fellow college star Luke Clanton secure his PGA Tour card last week, Jackson Koivun has a chance to follow suit at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational as a sponsor exemption, but the Auburn sophomore is not putting any added pressure on himself.

“It’s hard not to think about that, knowing going into an event if I top-10, I can get my PGA Tour card,” said Koivun, who is two points shy of earning his card via the PGA Tour University accelerated pathway.

“But just trying to put that in the back of my mind and go play like I know I can. If everything falls into place, that’s great, but at the end of the day I’m just trying to come out here and have fun.”

Koivun, 19, is in position to secure his card this week at Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando, Florida, mainly because of his tremendous freshman season that included two victories (including the SEC championship) and five second-place finishes, including the NCAA championship.

He became just the eighth player to win the Haskins Award, Hogan Award and Nicklaus Award as college player of the year, which gave him nine more points.

Koivun also received four points for being No. 2 in the world amateur rankings and another point for being selected to play in the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup. From there, his Palmer Cup teammates voted for one player to receive the exemption into the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and they chose him.

“It was definitely something really special to be voted on by my peers,” said Koivun, who finished 52nd at The Memorial last June and tied for 56th at the Farmers Insurance Open in January.

“There’s a lot of really, really good golfers on that team, and for