Frederick: Can Jackson Koivun, the next superstar on deck, hold on for win No. 1 at 3M Open?

A dream Sunday is on deck at the 3M Open. The name at the top of the leaderboard after Round 3 — Jackson Koivun, who holds a three-shot lead after firing a 10-under round of 61 on Saturday in Blaine — may not be familiar to many, but he’s the one folks have been waiting for in the golf world.

Koivun is the next superstar on deck.

The former No. 1 amateur in the world is a two-time winner of the Jack Nicklaus Award, given to the game’s top collegiate player. The 21 year old Koivun has had stardom written all over him for years.

He’s realizing his potential ahead of schedule.

In recent years, the PGA Tour opened a pathway for the top collegiate player to jump straight to the game’s top professional tour. Most do so with mild results. It’s not an easy transition to make.

Koivun is proving capable of handling it. He enters Sunday with a three-shot lead over Emiliano Grillo and a strong chance to officially announce his arrival as a legitimate threat on Tour.

Frankly, golf could use it. There are no clear-cut “stars” in the younger ranks of players. Come the 2027 Masters, all major champions, past and present, will be 30 years of age or older. The once young American Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup teams are slowly getting older.

Scottie Scheffler is 30. Collin Morikawa will hit that threshold in February, while Cameron Young will in May.

Other candidates to provide fresh blood in the American pipeline have fallen short to date. Koivun may be different. Just how much so? We’ll gather more information on that Sunday, when he steps back onto the low-scoring, yet high-risk course that is TPC Twin Cities, a track that has vanquished many final-round leads in short order.

Can Koivun hold off a hungry pack of chasers? He’ll likely have to score to do so. Think Scottie Scheffler’s six-shot deficit is too much to overcome? That’s the same margin Max Greyserman came up just one shot short of erasing two years ago against Jhonnatan Vegas.

Tony Finau trailed Scott Piercy by five shots with 11 holes to play on Sunday in 2022. Finau beat Piercy by four strokes at day’s end.

“He’s obviously the best in the world for a reason,” Koivun said. “And I’m sure he’s going to go up there and put a good number and get in contention.”

Scheffler looked dead and buried in Round 3 after stumbling out to a front-nine 35, but shot himself back into the tournament by coming home in 29.

As he walked off the 18th green, the World No. 1 had to figure he’d be within three or four shots of the lead when he teed off Sunday, only to have that plan foiled by Koivun, who shot 28 coming home — punctuated by an eagle on the par-5, 18th — to grab a stranglehold of the tournament.

But get even the slightest bit shaky under the Sunday pressure in a heat-drenched Blaine, and those bodies of water start to look a lotta bit bigger.

On Saturday, Koivun proved he has the game to take on, and beat, the game’s best on any given day. On Sunday, he’ll have a chance to prove he has the mettle to do so, as well.

“I’m feeling great. Excited, ready for tomorrow. It’s going to be definitely a test tomorrow,” Koivun said. “I’m sure some of the pins will be tucked and we’ve got a lot of great players behind me, but just going to stick to my game plan and try to smile.”