Jackson Koivun is trying to keep his place at the edge of the FedEx Cup standings when the Wyndham Championship begins Thursday in Greensboro, North Carolina. The 21-year-old is No. 70 heading into the final tournament of the PGA Tour regular season, and that is exactly where the playoff line sits.
For Koivun, this is his fifth start on tour as a pro, and he is back in the same event where he tied for fifth at 14 under last season as an amateur. He also won the 3M Open in his third start on July 26, a result that showed how quickly he has been able to turn limited chances into a climb up the board. Now the question is not whether he can chase another breakthrough, but whether he can stay inside the group that moves on.
The number matters because only the top 70 after the Wyndham Championship advance to the FedEx Cup playoffs. After that, the field narrows again, with the top 50 after the BMW Championship reaching the Tour Championship and the top 30 at that stage also earning a place in Atlanta. The pressure is not just on Koivun. Aldrich Potgieter, Ricky Castillo, Matti Schmid, Jordan Smith and Steven Fisk are all packed into the 65-70 range with him, which means a single round can redraw the cutoff late in the week.
That is where the friction sits. Mac Meissner is 71st and needs only a solo 44th or better, according to PGA Tour projections provided to, to move up one spot and push the bubble the other way. Meissner was the runner-up in last season’s Wyndham Championship, so the setting is familiar, and the line he is chasing is thin enough to make every shot in Greensboro feel like part of the same playoff race.
Koivun sounds less interested in protecting a number than in treating the week like a chance he has earned. “I mean, being 70 is great,” he said. “It’s a good and bad spot, but it gives me an opportunity to go earn making the playoffs. Just to have that opportunity to even have a chance at that is just so awesome. Not really changing my game plan.”
Last season showed how sharp the cutoff can be. Chris Kirk moved into the top 70 after the Wyndham Championship, while Byeong Hun An fell out of it. This year, Koivun is the one sitting on the line, and the outcome in Greensboro will decide whether his season extends into Memphis and the first round of the playoffs, or ends with the regular season.
