GREENSBORO, N.C. – U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Brandt Snedeker and newly-minted pro Ben James share a teacher in Todd Anderson and planned to play a practice round together at the Wyndham Championship when Jackson Koivun, James’s U.S. Walker Cup teammate of less than a year ago, moseyed on by and asked if he could join them.
“Absolutely, I’d love to see you,” Snedeker said. And that’s how Snedeker, 45, got an up-close view of the 21-year-old Koivun, the 3M Open winner and golf’s new hotshot, who is making a bid for a potential captain’s pick on Snedeker’s 12-man team to face Team International in late September.
“Somewhat of an accident today, but very glad I got to see him, meet him, spend some time with him and talk to him,” Snedeker said on Tuesday during a press conference ahead of the Wyndham Championship, a tournament he’s won twice in the past. “I had seen him in passing the last couple weeks. Kind of wanted to leave him alone because I know he’s going through a lot with your first win and demands on your time and all that kind of stuff. Wanted him to really enjoy it.”
This wasn’t the first time Snedeker and Koivun had teed it up. Snedeker previously played with the former Auburn star at The Memorial a couple years ago when he was a freshman and made the cut.
“I was super impressed with him then,” Snedeker said. “He played really well, but he was an 18-year-old kid. So, to see how he’s kind of grown, matured was impressive. But I was impressed with him at 18, like he was a different kind of kid at 18 than most 18-year-olds are. I’m excited to watch him play and see where he kind of winds up.”
He added: “I don’t think my game has probably ever been as good as his. He’s a generational player. You look at every metric you want to look at. To do what he did in college, to do what he’s done as a professional, this kid’s really special … Now, the hardest thing to do in golf is how do you handle success. We’re pretty good at handling failure, but how do you handle success?”
Snedeker is adamant that he’s neither seeking a youth movement to shake up Team USA and prepare the potential future backbone of the team nor crafty, veteran leadership to show them the way. He’s interested only in assembling the best 12 players.
“I’m not into, oh, let’s just take a young kid because we need a young kid on the team. That doesn’t make any sense to me,” Snedeker said. “I don’t view it as, oh, well, X player’s played in seven Cups so he’s a given quantity and we know what he does so we need to get some young blood on here to do whatever. I don’t view it that way. I view it as you want the 12 best players on that team to give you the best chance of winning to make a great team…There’s no playing favorites or doing anything like that. Golf’s going to dictate who plays on the team or who doesn’t.”
Koivun is making just his fifth pro start this week on the PGA Tour and will need to remain in the top 70 to make the FedEx Cup playoffs. How will Snedeker determine if Koivun is worthy of a pick?
“You look at everything. You talk to people around him, you talk to other players who have played with him, try to get a good sense of who he is and what makes him tick and then go from there,” Snedeker said. “But there’s probably 20, 22 guys that have a chance of making this team right now so it’s kind of wide open. There’s guys who played great golf over two years that are right there that probably deserve to be picked and deserve to be on this team. The golf’s going to dictate what happens from here. There’s no playing favorites or doing anything like that.”
Snedeker is sure of one thing – the sky’s the limit for Koivun.
“I think putting a limit on where this kid can go would be stupid because I don’t think he knows how good he can be yet, but I’m very impressed. I think he’s a great kid. He’s great for the Tour. I think he embodies everything you want as a young star out here and I look forward to watching him play. It’s going to be fun,” Snedeker said. “He’s way better than I was at his age, even when I got 26 and got on Tour. I expect great things from him.”
Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.
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