ISCO Championship 2025: Montgomery chanced to scramble home at Hurstbourne at 89/1

• Current form far from vital

• Brand-new venue for the 10th edition 

• Montgomery is a reasonable bet at 89/190.00

• Read my Scottish Open preview here

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Tournament History

Formally known as the Barbasol Championship, the ISCO Championship was introduced to the PGA Tour schedule 10 years ago to fill the slot left by the Sanderson Farms Championship when that event moved to its now familiar autumnal slot.

Originally played in the same week as the Open Championship, the ISCO Championship shuffled forward one week in 2022 to play opposite the now co-sanctioned Scottish Open and that's the case again this time around for the fourth year-in-a-row. The Barracuda Championship will play alongside the Open next week.

Like next week's Barracuda Championship, and the Scottish Open on the DP World Tour, the ISCO Championship is now co-sanctioned between the two Tours and 50 spots are available for players from the DP World Tour, although nowhere near 50 ever make the trip.

The tournament was staged on the Lakes Course at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama for the first three years, but it switched to the Champions Course at the Keene Trace club in Kentucky in 2018.

This year it moves onto the Hurstbourne Country Club in Louisville where it will remain for the next three years.

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Venue

The Championship Course, Hurstbourne Country Club, Louisville, Kentucky

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Course Details

Par 70, 7,056 yards

Hurstbourne is a short tree-lined parkland course.

The zoysia grass fairways are between 25 and 30 yards wide and the bluegrass/fescue rough is around four inches deep.

The bentgrass greens are fairly small and water is in play on six holes.

The club's website has flyover videos of every hole here and the clip below provides a glimpse of the track too.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 21:30 on Thursday.

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First Nine Winners with Pre-event Exchange Prices

2015 - Scott Piercy -19 26.025/1
2016 - Aaron Baddeley -18 40.039/1 (playoff)
2017 - Grayson Murray -21 55.054/1
2018 - Troy Merritt -23 50.049/1
2019 - Jim Herman -26 1000.0999/1
2020 - Event Cancelled
2021 - Seamus Power -21 (playoff) 25.024/1
2022 - Trey Mullinax -25 150.0149/1
2023 - Vincent Norrman -22 (playoff) 27.026/1
2024 - Harry Hall -22 (playoff) 55.054/1

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What Will it Take to Win the ISCO Championship?

After four years at Keene Trace, we were starting to build up a nice picture so it's a bit frustrating to move venues to a course never before used on the PGA Tour.

The course is short and its only real defence if the weather's kind is the size of the greens.

They're quite small so nobody's going to find them with relentless regularity, and I suspect Scrambling will be the key stat at the end of the week.

The last two events - the Rocket Classic and the John Deere Classic - were both played on courses with bentgrass greens so anyone that's performed nicely in either event or both may well be worthy of consideration.

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Is There an Angle In?

With no previous course form to go on, it's worth looking at the form of the winners in the lead up to the event and in nine previous renewals, we've only seen one winner go off at a triple-figure price.

Most winners have shown something and only three winners have been completely out of form before they won.

The 2017 winner, Grayson Murray, had current form figures reading MC-27-35-18-26-74-MC, the 2022 victor, Trey Mullinax, had unimpressive numbers reading MC-MC-24-MC-32-MC-69-MC-MC and the 2019 winner, Jim Harman, who went off at 1000.0999/1, won here after eight straight missed cuts, so current form is far from essential, although the other six tournament winners had shown glimpses. Here's the lead up form of the other six...

2015 - Scott Piercy MC-43-WD-MC-29-14
2016 - Aaron Baddeley MC-55-MC-MC-12-17
2018 - Troy Merritt 42-53-12-MC-17-43
2021 - Seamus Power 54-9-19-19-8-8
2023 - Vincent Norrman 8-48-MC-MC-MC-24
2024 - Harry Hill MC-40-MC-42-31-12

Harry Hill had certainly signposted his wellbeing with a 12^th place finish in the John Deere Classic the week before, where he'd sat third, trailing by one, at halfway.

The 2023 champ, Vincent Normann, didn't play in the JDC but he'd finished 24^th in the Rocket Classic in his penultimate start and the 2021 winner, Seamus Power, had finished eighth in both the Rocket and the JDC.

Troy Merritt had only finished 48^th in the John Deere Classic in his penultimate start but his 17^th in the Quickens Loans National two weeks prior was an eye-catching performance given he sat seventh with a round to go.

The inaugural winner, Scott Piercy, was well-fancied after his 14^th placed finish in the JDC and Aaron Baddeley was a plausible candidate 12 months later given he'd finished 12^th in the Quicken Loans and 17^th in the Barracuda Championship.

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Is There an Identikit Winner?

These opposite field events are tricky to weigh up as they represent a great chance for struggling older pros to get back on track, as well as a golden opportunity for up-and-coming players to earn the stability of a two-year exemption with a win.

As many as three of the last for winers were winning for the first time on the PGA Tour and all five of last year's playoff protagonists, the winner, Hall, Zac Blair, Pierceson Coody, Rico Hoey and Matthew NeSmith, were all looking to get off the mark on the PGA Tour.

The late Grayson Murray was only 23 when he won this in 2017 and the last two winners, Norman and Hall, were only 25 and 26, but they're the only three winners in their 20s.

The 2022 winner, Trey Mullinax, had just turned 30 but the 43-year-old veteran, Kevin Streelman, finished second after a ding-dong battle on the back-nine, Merritt was winning for a second time on the PGA Tour at the age of 32, Power, although winning for the first time, was 34, and Piercy and Baddeley were both 36 when they took the title. Herman who was 41, is the only winner in his 40s.

This event now also offers up a chance for DP World Tour players to secure a card on the PGA Tour and three of the last four winners have been Europeans.

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In-Play Tactics

Although we're going to a brand-new venue, the shape of the event is the same, and given the profile of the field, nerves play a part towards the end year after year, and we've witnessed all sorts of in-running drama.

The third-round leader in 2021, JT Poston was matched at a low of 1.021/50 as he played the back-nine on Sunday but a double-bogey at the par five 15^th and a bogey at the 16^th saw him come back to the field and Power went on to beat Poston in a playoff at the sixth extra hole.

DP World Tour player, Matti Schmid, led through 54-holes three years ago and he was matched at just 1.9520/21 after he'd birdied the opening hole on Sunday, but he went on to shoot 77 (the worst round of the day) to slip to eighth.

The runner-up, Streelman, was then matched at a low of 1.51/2 before Mullinax won and two men traded at odds-on in 2023 without winning.

Pre-event 120.0119/1 chance, Trevor Cone, who had led by a stroke with a round to go, looked the most likely winner when he was matched at a low of 1.814/5 before he double-bogeyed the par three 16^th after a poor tee-shot and sat in the clubhouse, England's Nathan Kimsey's price dipped to 1.511/2 before Norrman, who looked like he'd blown his chance, holed an eight-foot bogey putt on 18 to get into the playoff.

Hoey, who was eliminated from the playoff with a bogey at the first extra hole, was matched at just 1.21/5 last year as he played the 18^th hole with the lead but with the adrenaline surging, he overhit his approach before recording a bogey five.

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Steve Rawlings' ISCO Championship Selection: Montgomery chanced to scramble home at Hurstbourne 

This is a very weak event.

Last week's runner-up at the John Deere Classic, Emiliano Grillo, is the only man in the field inside the world's top 100 and he was 144^th in the world before last week.

Michael Thorbjornsen, is the favourite but anyone who witnessed how he played the par five 17^th at Deere Run, when in with a chance of posting a reasonably competitive target on Sunday, wouldn't want to trust him in the heat of battle. I've found it very difficult to find anyone worth backing at less than 100/1101.00.

I have got two for the Find Me a 100 Winner column, which I'll post tomorrow but, in the meantime, after much digging, I'm happy to chance Taylor Montgomery modestly at 90.089/1.

The 30-year-old, who was once ranked at as high as 51^st in the world, hasn't been at the top of his game for a while and his best results in 2025 to date are his top 25 finish in the Cognizant Classic in March and a seventh placed finish on the Korn Ferry Tour in May. But there a couple of reasons to think he may contend here.

Montgomery has been putting nicely, ranking highly for both Putting Average and Strokes Gained: Putting, and he's ranked inside the top 10 for Scrambling in two of his last three starts, including last week when he finished 31^st in the John Deere Classic.

That doesn't look a terrific effort at first glance, but he sat tied for seventh at halfway and was just two off the lead before a 72 on Saturday saw him slide down the leaderboard.

As stated above, we have very little to go on but the ability to get it up and down when these smaller than average greens are missed could be key. In what really is a weak event, I thought Montgomery was a reasonable price at 90.089/1.

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