Jackson Koivun arrives in style, Lucas Glover takes off his shoes, and the greatest golf dad moment

We are so back. For those wondering why Par Talk disappeared last month, the best weekly golf column on the internet took a sabbatical while I went on paternity leave. By late June, I had gone from being just a boy dad to a member of the girl dad gang and a father of two kids under the age of four. Life is busy, but so beautiful.

Some things happened in the golf world while we took a short break. Ryan Fox won the Open, Bryson DeChambeau hit the turf, Scottie Scheffler remains the best player in the world, but we can’t buy victory, and we’d be remiss to mention Chris Gotterup winning the John Deere Classic and suddenly becoming the No. 7 player in the world.

When it came to this past weekend’s 3M Open, everyone was expecting a hangover of epic proportions after The Open and the last major championship of the year, but the golf gods smiled on us as Jackson Koivun found the winner’s circle in his third start as a professional.

JACKSON KOIVUN POSTS SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER TO WIN HIS FIRST PGA TOUR EVENT JUST 24 DAYS INTO HIS PRO CAREER

All Koivun did for his first victory on Tour was shoot a bogey-free 66 to beat the world No. 1 player, who was in hunt mode with his own final-round 63, by three shots. Not bad for a 21-year-old who played college golf at Auburn a few months ago. Below, we’ll dive into Koivun’s masterful week and other moments worth mentioning. It’s great to be back.

This Par Talk is a weekly read that will let you know all the highlights you need to know in professional golf. You can follow Mark on X @itismarkharris and email him mark.harris@outkick.com.

Jackson Koivun wastes zero time meeting his expectations

This increased rapidly.

You can count just about anything in college golf, and Jackson Koivun did just that during his three-year career at Auburn. The California kid won every award, won countless events and became the No. 1 amateur in the world. It’s held the title of “the next big thing” for years, but unlike so many others who have earned that expectation, it actually lived up to that expectation right away.

Although he earned his PGA Tour card through the Tour’s University program in 2025, he returned to Auburn and retained his amateur status until the 2026 U.S. Open, where he finished T-23. He turned pro immediately afterwards and surprisingly missed the cut at the John Deere Classic in his pro debut.

Jackson Koivun reacts on the 18th hole after winning the 3M Open at the Tournament Players Club Twin Cities on Sunday, July 26, 2026 in Blaine, Minnesota. Photo: Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)

Fast forward just three weeks and two starts later and Koivun is now the winner on the PGA Tour, making everything look a lot easier than it actually is. He missed just 11 greens and 12 fairways all week, made three bogeys in 72 holes and had more than nine shots on the green through approach play alone. These are not supposed to be attainable numbers for a man making his third professional start.

As for Sunday’s final round, it was as good as they come considering the situation. Even though Koivun started the day with a three-shot lead, three-shot leads can disappear quickly when you’re a rookie and see names like Scottie Scheffler, Hideki Matsuyama, and Brian Harman move up the leaderboard. But Koivun did not even blink, and it is quite impressive that he was free of bogeys on that stage he had never set foot on before.

Scottie Scheffler of the United States walks to the first green during the final round of the 3M Open 2026 at TPC Twin Cities on July 26, 2026 in Blaine, Minnesota. (Photo: Andrew Wevers/Getty Images) (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

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As for expectations, expectations are rising for Koivun moving forward. Earning a spot in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, making the President’s Cup team, and earning more victories before the calendar flips to 2027 are now on the table, fair or unfair.

Lucas Glover takes his dogs outside

Other than Koivun earning his first victory on Tour and Scheffler shooting a final-round 63, the best moment of Sunday’s final round at 3M was when former US Open champion Lucas Glover took off his shoes after hitting midway through the round.

Glover hit a 10-foot shot for birdie on the 10th hole, and instead of walking to the hole and picking up his tee, he walked to the sidelines and took off his golf shoes.

While everyone assumed Glover’s actions were a protest against the AimPoint method that many players on Tour use to read putts these days, it turns out that Green was paying attention to spike marks on the green; This was something he was said to have been told to do by an official during the round.

It would be much, much cooler if AimPoint protested, which not only increases lap time but also increases foot traffic around the hole. Glover is an outspoken critic of AimPoint, so perhaps throwing his shoes was a mixture of being mindful of his spikes and also a protest. At least that’s how we’ll choose to look at it.

A father-son moment that almost broke me

Fatherhood is separated a second time because a father looks very different from the first. In my free time, the three-and-a-half-year-old and I often spend time with my mother’s daughter. Lucky for me, my son is obsessed with golf and we got to spend tons of time together on the course during the break, but our Sunday evening twilight nine holes stands out above them all.

The temperature where we live on Sunday was about 173 degrees, but the toddler was determined to stay the course. Besides the fact that we both looked like we jumped into the pool on the second tee, we had a typically great time there and then we hit the ninth green.

After hitting his first shot into a greenside bunker, the toddler looked to putt again. He found the green with the No. 2 tee, and as he was walking out and I was sweating gallons as I scanned the bunker after picking up the golf ball, I turned around to see him taking his tee out of the cup.

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His next move was to take off his hat and sunglasses. I didn’t think anything of it and assumed he had calmed down knowing our tour was over. He just stood there staring at me for a few seconds, almost waiting for me to do something.

I didn’t know what this thing was, so I asked him what the problem was. He responded by asking if he could hug me.

“Of course,” I said, and as he held onto my leg, both of us drenched in sweat, he said, “That’s what actors do.”

Admittedly at this point I haven’t yet gotten into the etiquette of playing golf with him—he is only three, after all—but he has figured out that players embrace and shake hands after they finish playing, watching golf with me on TV.

I am a proud, blessed father.

YOUNG GOLFER MILES RUSSELL GIVES HIS DAD THE FATHER’S DAY EXPERIENCE OF ALL TIME AT THE US OPEN FINAL TOUR