Golf News: 6-8-2026

[Dudley Dent]

Auburn Golf News: 6-8-2026

Leadoff Lo: How freshman Logan Reilly clinched Auburn golf's national championship:
https://247sports.com/college/auburn/article/logan-reilly-auburn-tigers-mens-golf-national-championship-287525068/

Koivun becomes two-time Jack Nicklaus Award winner:
https://auburntigers.com/news/2026/06/7/koivun-becomes-two-time-jack-nicklaus-award-winner

Auburn golfer Jackson Koivun named ASWA Amateur Athlete of the Year:
https://www.al.com/auburn/2026/06/auburn-golfer-jackson-koivun-named-aswa-amateur-athlete-of-the-year.html

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Leadoff Lo: How freshman Logan Reilly clinched Auburn golf's national championship

By Christian Clemente

Leadoff Lo, freshman Logan Reilly was one of the very first or the first player out for most of stroke play at the NCAA Championship and played very solid with a 4-under finish for the week, tied for 19th on the individual leaderboard.

Auburn opted to keep that going once it was match play time, with head coach Nick Clinard and his staff sending Reilly out in the second match against Stanford, first match against Oklahoma State and first match against UCLA en route to winning the national championship.

Matched up against Stanford's top player in Dean Greyserman, the younger brother of PGA Tour pro Max Greyserman, Reilly didn't blink and stayed in it then took the lead with a surge on the back nine, closing out the match 2&1. Then going off first against the defending national champs, Reilly wanted to get done early and did just that with a huge 7&5 win where he dominated the whole way.

"That was insane," Reilly said. "If you make the Elite Eight in the NCAA Championship you're obviously an unreal team and you can't take anyone for granted. I got (Dean) Greyserman, they were saying he's their best player but I knew if I played good golf it would take care of itself. I went out there and tried not to give him any holes and make him earn everything, and that's what I did. Made a clutch about 18-footer on 17 to clinch it.

"Then moved on to Oklahoma State, the defending natty champs and I knew that'd be the toughest match of the day so far. I was just going out there to dominate. I wanted to get done quick to go out and support the boys. I just tried to get done as fast as I can. I played really solid, didn't make a bogey or anything so that was crazy."

It wasn't always going to be that easy though, and Reilly knew it. With the two wins on Tuesday it advanced Auburn to the national championship match against UCLA on Wednesday as the Tigers looked to capture their second national championship in three years.

The anticipation grew over the course of the day as Reilly knew he'd be headed out first against UCLA's Alex Papayoanou. He went out and won the first hole with Papayoanou sending his tee shot out of bounds, but it wouldn't be that easy.

The two combined for 11 bogeys and a double bogey over the course of the day, in a wild match that continued to be swung by some mistakes on both sides. Ultimately it was a mistake from Papayoanou on the 18th tee, firing one out of bounds just like how his round started, that helped give Reilly the chance to win it 1UP.

"We didn't tee off until 2:30, so you have the whole morning to think about it," Reilly said. "It was crazy. You're not really talking about it with the team, but everyone's in their mind thinking like this is the national championship, this is it, today's the day. I won the first hole and kind of thought I'd be good, but it was back-and-forth the whole day. No one ever got more than one up, so I just tried to stick to my game plan. I didn't have my best stuff, so I tried to take it slow and not rush too fast. I knew if I took it slow and he kind of tried to force everything — that's what happened on 18, he tried to force it and ended up getting it out of bounds.

"So once we got onto 18 green, looked back to my right and saw the leaderboard and saw that I'd be the third point to clinch it," Reilly added. "I told CDub (associate head coach Chris Williams) that this was the time, and ended up clinching it. The first putt, I'm not going to lie, TV doesn't really do it justice it broke like 5-feet and was straight downhill. You just have to baby it but in that moment it's a little bit tough. I had about four-to-five feet coming back. But holes 14-17 I made four straight five-footers, so I was like it's the same thing, no difference. Right center putt, put it on that line and it ended up dropping."

Reilly's description of the round may not even do it justice with how many twists and turns there were throughout as he looked to get a point on the board.

During Clinard's speech at Toomer's Corner on Friday, he joked that as he got to the 18th green after being with Jackson Koivun during his round, he asked Williams how he was feeling as Reilly tried to clinch the final point. Clinard said that Williams told him he felt like he was about to have a heart attack.

Getting to walk the whole round with Reilly, Williams put it and that final moment at the end into perspective.

"I think he was super excited going into it," Williams said. "He was playing well, we all knew he was playing well. His guy hits it out of bounds on the first shot. We're like, 'Reills, you got this kid right where we want him.' Then made a few uncharacteristic mistakes and it was like alright, we've got ourselves a little dog fight here. We got onto the back nine and he was still just fighting, fighting, fighting. Made a few uncharacteristic mistakes throughout the day and the back nine, but finally we get through about hole 12 I was like, 'Reills, you've got six holes and you're all tied. If you can't beat this guy in six holes, c'mon. You're playing so well and your game is so good, your heads in a good mind space. Six holes, that's all you need. Six holes of some of the best golf you've played.'"

"And he played awesome the last six and fortunately was able to win on 18. His mindset, his mentality, no moment is too big for him and I was standing on the 18th green and what Nick said wasn't wrong. He blows that first putt 5-feet by and I'm just thinking, 'Oh my gosh, here we go again. It's right back to hole No. 9.' I'm kind of looking at him and he looks at me and goes, 'CDub, I got it.' I go, 'Alright bud, you got it.' He just bangs it in the back and it's such an awesome moment for him and that's going to serve him so well going forward the next couple of years for us."

Establishing himself as one of the cornerstones of the future of Auburn golf alongside fellow freshman Jake Albert, Reilly will remember that moment for the rest of his life. And he'll look to repeat it — but maybe a little less stressfully — next year.

"It was total chaos," Reilly said. "It was just shock. Literally just won the national championship on the 18th green with everyone back home watching. It was definitely the best feeling of my life for sure."

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Koivun becomes two-time Jack Nicklaus Award winner

By Tucker Cleverdon

Auburn All-American Jackson Koivun swept the national player of the year awards for the second time in his career Sunday, when he was announced as the recipient of the 2026 Jack Nicklaus Award presented by Workday.

He becomes the award’s third two-time Division I winner, following Phil Mickelson (1990-92) and Bryce Molder (1998, 2001). Koivun is also the first player in collegiate golf history to win all three player of the year awards (Haskins, Hogan, Nicklaus) more than once.

The Nicklaus Award is named for the Big Ten and NCAA Champion who helped inspire and create the honor in 1988. The award is presented to the national player of the year in NCAA Divisions I, II and III, as well as NAIA and NJCAA.

In three years on The Plains, Koivun has led the Auburn men’s golf program to an SEC Championship and its first two NCAA Championships while rewriting nearly every record in the book.

Over 13 starts in his junior season, Koivun earned 12 top 10s, eight top fives and six wins. The Chapel Hill, North Carolina native carded 33 of his 40 rounds at or below par, including 23 in a row to conclude the year, paired with an NCAA-record 68.20 scoring average.

At last week’s NCAA Championship, Koivun shot 7-under to finish tied for 10th in stroke play, leading the No. 1 Tigers to the top seed in match play. Koivun then went 2-1 in his matches to help his team lift the national championship trophy for the second time in three years.

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Auburn golfer Jackson Koivun named ASWA Amateur Athlete of the Year

By Creg Stephenson
al.com

At this point, it might be easier to list the awards and accolades that Jackson Koivun hasn’t achieved in his three-year Auburn University golf career.

The 21-year-old junior is a two-time national champion, having led the Tigers to their second NCAA team title in three years earlier this month in California. He’s twice been SEC Player of the Year and twice been named winner of both the Ben Hogan Award and Haskins Award as college golfer of the year.

Koivun has won the SEC individual championship three times in as many seasons. In 2025, he received the Mark H. McCormack Medal for achieving the No. 1 spot in the World Amateur Golf Rankings at season’s end.

In April, Golf.com listed him as arguably the greatest amateur player of his generation, ahead of such recent NCAA luminaries (and current pros) as UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay, Texas’ Jordan Spieth and Arizona State’s Jon Rahm.

It’s for those reasons and others that Koivun is the runaway winner of the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s Amateur Athlete of the Year for 2025-26. He easily outdistanced several competitors in voting by ASWA members, receiving nearly three times as many first-place votes as the next-highest finisher and only two fewer than the other 13 nominees combined.

Auburn golf coach Nick Clinard called Koivun “an elite competitor.”

“The guy competes on every shot,” Clinard said. “He’s extremely focused, he’s extremely driven. He has an achiever mindset — he doesn’t take a shot off, ever. His positivity, his optimism, all the intangible stuff that you really need to be a great, great player, he has it.

“… I’d say he’s one of the better athletes to probably ever go to Auburn. I think the record speaks for itself. I don’t know if the Auburn family really realizes how special he is. … It’s been a blessing and a privilege to be on a front row seat just to watch it.”

Born in California but raised in Chapel Hill, N.C., Koivun said he “fell in love” with Auburn during an unofficial recruiting visit while still in high school. He called his decision to play his college golf on the Plains the “best decision of my life.”

Koivun’s individual on-course highlights are too numerous to list them all, but here’s one that might illustrate his greatness. In February, he recorded back-to-back rounds of 62 at the Amer Indi Invitational in Hawaii, breaking the NCAA’s 36-hole record of 18-under par, set at the 1996 Pac-10 championship by Tiger Woods. His three-round total of 25-under bested the Auburn school 54-hole record by seven strokes.

At the most-recent NCAA championships, Koivun finished just tied for 10th during the four rounds of stroke play. However, he turned the switch back on during three rounds of match play, besting NCAA individual champion and World No. 3 Preston Stout of Oklahoma State 1-Up in the semifinals, then never trailed against UCLA’s Baylor Larrabee in the championship round.

The national championship capped off a college career that Koivun called “perfect.”

“I’ve done almost everything I’ve wanted to do, and I’ve had so much fun doing it,” Koivun said. “Meeting so many people, playing so many good golf courses, and just growing with my team and coaches and everything like that — it’s just been perfect.”

Koivun has already earned his PGA Tour card by achieving a high-enough point total in the University Accelerated Program. On Father’s Day weekend, he’ll play in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in suburban New York.

After that, it’s likely Koivun will turn pro. And when he does, he’ll do so with as sterling a set of credentials as any amateur golfer in recent history.

“Honestly, I want to be the No. 1 player in the world,” Koivun said. “It’s a pretty lofty goal, but I feel like if I work hard enough and play like know how I can play, I can definitely accomplish it. There’s plenty of very, very good golfers out there, but I feel like I can get to that goal.”

The ASWA convention is presented by ALFA Insurance, the Mobile Sports Authority, the Panini Senior Bowl, the Paul W. Bryant Museum, the Alabama High School Athletic Association and Jacksonville State University.