Koivun, 2 Others Tied for Western Am Lead with 65s; Warian Is 1 Back

DAYTON, Ohio -- When college golf coaches -- or whoever the people are that run college golf -- get together, they can do some strange things. For some reason, they have three awards that they give to the national player of the year: the Haskins Award, the Nicklaus Award and the Hogan Award. It's kind of like having three Heisman Trophies.

If, however, one guy wins them all, he must have had quite the year, and that describes Jackson Koivun's 2023-24 season for the University of Auburn. The freshman from Chapel Hill, N.C., was top five or six in virtually every tournament he played in, won the SEC individual championship, tied for second in the stroke-play portion of the NCAA tournament and led Auburn to the NCAA team championship. Those credentials enabled him to win all three of the national player of the year awards, and he also won the Phil Mickelson Award, which is given each year to the best freshman.

On Tuesday, the Western Amateur began. It was first played in 1899 and is the third-oldest amateur tournament in the golf, behind only the British Am (1885) and the U.S. Amateur (1895). The list of former champions includes Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. Koivun came in as one of the favorites, and he was as good as advertised in the first round, shooting a 6-under-par 65 at Moraine Country Club. That has him tied for first place with Jackson Van Paris, a senior to be at Vanderbilt, and Ziqin Zhou, who will be a freshman at Cal in a few weeks.

Van Paris won one of the other biggest amateur tounaments last year, the Sunnehanna. He started his first round on the 10th tee and shot even-par 35 on the back nine, but he was 6 under on the front nine, including an eagle at the 539-yard, par-5 fourth hole.

One stroke behind, in a six-way tie for second is Ben Warian, the Minnesota All-American from Stillwater who won the Sunnehanna this year. Like Van Paris, Warian started on the back nine and birdied the par-4 14th hole and par-3 15th. He bogeyed the par-3 second hole, and was only 1 under at that point. But he birdied four of the next five holes.

The top 44 players and ties at the end of Wednesday's second round will make the cut, but that won't be easy. Thirty-eight players broke 70 on Tuesday, and 12 more were tied for 39th place at 70, which means that the other two Minnesotans in the field -- former state high school champion Nate Stevens and former State Boys Junior PGA champ Gunnar Broin are going to have to hustle just to make the cut, after both opened with 73s. Thursday will be a 36-hole day, and the top 16 at the conclusion of 72 holes of stroke play (no ties) will make the Sweet 16 and begin match play Friday morning.




122nd Western Amateur Championship

At Moraine Country Club

Par 71, 7,246 yards

Dayton, Ohio

First-round results

(44 players and ties will make the cut after 36 holes; the top 16 after 72 holes will go into match play)

T1. Jackson Van Paris, Pinehurst, N.C. 65

T1. Jackson Koivun, Chapel Hill, N.C., 65

T1. Ziqin Zhou, China 65

T4. Ben Warian, Stillwater, Minn. 66

T4. Tyson Shelley, Holladay, Utah 66

T4. Evan Woosley-Reed, Shelbyville, Tenn. 66

T4. Ben James, Milford, Conn. 66

T4. Zachery Pollo, Rocklin, Calif. 66

T4. Jack Turner, Orlando, Fla. 66

T94. Nate Stevens, Northfield 73

T94. Gunnar Broin, Shorewood 73