ISCO Championship: The Punter's Preview

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ISCO Championship Tournament History

Formally known as the Barbasol Championship, the ISCO Championship was introduced to the PGA Tour schedule 11 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 fifth year-in-a-row. The Corales Puntacana Championship will play alongside the Open Championship next week.

Like next week's Corales Puntacana 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 returns to the Hurstbourne Country Club in Louisville, which hoste the event for the first 12 months ago.

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Venue

The Championship Course, Hurstbourne Country Club, Louisville, Kentucky.

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Course Details

Par 70, 7,056 yards
Scoring average in 2025 - 71.12

Hurstbourne is a short tree-lined parkland course.

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

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 21:00 on Thursday.

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First 10 winners with pre-event Betfair 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
2025 - William Mouw -10 80.079/1

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2025 Isco Championship stats

(Key: DD - Driving Distance; DA - Driving Accuracy; GIR - Greens in Regulation; SC - Scrambling; PA - Putting Average)

William Mouw -10 DD 16, DA 43, GIR 4, SCR 2, PA 31
Paul Peterson -9 DD 57, DA 2, GIR 7, SCR 25, PA 21
Manuel Elvira -7 DD 46, DA 50, GIR 21, SCR 4, PA 42

(Key: SG-T - Strokes Gained: Off the Tee; SG-A - Strokes Gained: Approach; SG-ATG - Strokes Gained: Around the Tee; SG-T2G - Strokes Gained: Tee to Green; SG-P - Strokes Gained: Putting)

William Mouw -10 - SG:T: 20, SG:A: 12, SG:ATG: 29, SG:T2G: 8, SG:P: 5
Paul Peterson -9 - SG:T: 32, SG:A: 10, SG:ATG: 42, SG:T2G: 15, SG:P: 2
Manuel Elvira -7 - SG:T: 31, SG:A: 21, SG:ATG: 43, SG:T2G: 25, SG:P: 4

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Will Scrambling be a key stat again?

The front three last year all ranked highly for Strokes Gained Putting and the first two ranked inside the top seven for Greens In Regulation.

None of the driving metrics were important but 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 it wasn't a surprise to see that Scrambling was a key stat last year and that may prove to be an important metric again this time around, but we really can't make too many assumptions after just one edition at the venue.

Last week's John Deere Classic is staged at Deere Run, which also has bentgrass putting surfaces so a good week there should be a positive but the first and second 12 months ago, William Mouw and Paul Peterson, both missed the cut in the John Deere Classic last year and the man in third, Spain's Mauel Elvira, had missed the cut in the BMW International Open. 

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Strong current form looks far from essential

With very little course form to go on, it may be worth looking at the form of the winners in the lead up to the event so here's the list of winners, together with their last five performances before they won.

2015 - Scott Piercy MC-43-WD-MC-29-14
2016 - Aaron Baddeley MC-55-MC-MC-12-17
2017 - Grayson Murray 27-35-18-26-74-MC
2018 - Troy Merritt 42-53-12-MC-17-43
2019 - Jim Harman MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-MC
2021 - Seamus Power 54-9-19-19-8-8
2022 - Trey Mullinax MC-32-MC-69-MC-MC
2023 - Vincent Norrman 8-48-MC-MC-MC-24
2024 - Harry Hill MC-40-MC-42-31-12
2025 - William Mouw 27-MC-MC-MC-34-MC

Seamus Power, who had finished eighth in both the Rocket Classic and the John Deere Classic on his two previous starts, is the only winner to have finished inside the top 10 in his last start before winning but Jim Herman, who'd missed his eight previous cuts, is the only winner to go off at a triple-figure price.

Although not in spectacular form, half of the winners had finished inside top 25 in their penultimate event and four of the six winners had missed the cut in their previous outing.

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ISCO Championship winners' profiles

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.

Looking at the winners' profiles below, experienced players that had already won dominated the early editions but the younger pros have dominated recently.

2015 - Scott Piercy - aged 36, third PGA Tour win
2016 - Aaron Baddeley - aged 36, fourth PGA Tour win
2017 - Grayson Murray - aged 23, first PGA Tour win
2018 - Troy Merritt - aged 32, second PGA Tour win
2019 - Jim Harman - aged 41, second PGA Tour win
2021 - Seamus Power - aged 32, first PGA Tour win
2022 - Trey Mullinax - aged 30, first PGA Tour win
2023 - Vincent Norrman - aged 25, first PGA Tour win
2024 - Harry Hill - aged 26, first PGA Tour win
2025 - William Mouw - aged 24, first PGA Tour win 

The last three winners have all been in their mid-20s and the last four winners were all winning for the first time.

All five of the 2024 playoff protagonists, the winner, Harry Hall, Zac Blair, Pierceson Coody, Rico Hoey and Matthew NeSmith, were all looking to get off the mark on the PGA Tour and the first seven home last year were all seeking their first PGA Tour wins.

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 five winners have been European. 

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Will we get another off the pace winner?

Weather interrupted play on Saturday last year and the halfway five-stroke leader, Chan Kim, who still had six holes of round three to play, was one of many players that needed to finish off their third rounds on Sunday morning.

After a shaky start to round three, Kim, who was matched at as low as 1.684/6, was trailing Paul Peterson by a stroke when he returned to the course on Sunday morning, but he was soon out of contention after bogeying four of his remaining six holes.

Peterson was matched at a low of 3.412/5 and he didn't do an awful lot wrong, posting a one-under-par 69 in round four, but despite playing in the final three-ball of the day, he spent most of the day chasing!

The winner, Mouw, who was playing in just his 20^th event on the PGA Tour, was matched at 1000.0999/1 with 18 to play when he trailed Peterson by seven strokes, but he soon got his skates on in round four, setting the tone with birdies at the first three holes.

Mouw went on to post a quite brilliant bogey-free nine-under-par 61 two hours ahead of Peterson and co and he never really looked like being caught, eventually winning by a stroke.

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