Who should you pick to win the PGA Tour’s ISCO Championship? Four bets to consider.
Professional golf is back for another year in Central Kentucky, and there will be money on the line for both participants and viewers alike.
Starting Thursday, a field of 156 golfers will contest the 2024 ISCO Championship, a co-sanctioned PGA Tour and DP World Tour event that is being held for the sixth time at Champions at Keene Trace in Nicholasville.
For the first time, the ISCO Championship — an event that was formerly known as the Barbasol Championship — will be taking place in Kentucky with sports gambling legalized in the state.
The players in the ISCO Championship field are competing for a share of a $4 million total purse, with $720,000 going to this week’s winner.
But plenty of money can also be made by those watching at home or following along from outside the ropes.
Who should you be betting on this week at the ISCO Championship?
Here are four bets to consider at Keene Trace, including an amateur college golfer on a generational hot streak.
Odds listed as of Wednesday morning. Odds listed from shortest to longest.
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Carson Young to win the ISCO Championship
Result: Carson Young missed a historically low cut at the ISCO Championship.
While it may appear difficult on the surface to link together any common threads from the five previous golfers (Vincent Norrman, Trey Mullinax, Seamus Power, Jim Herman and Troy Merritt) who have won the PGA Tour’s annual stop at Keene Trace, some statistical elements from each of their performances provide a pattern for what it takes to win the ISCO Championship.
Generally speaking, those who have won in Nicholasville excel when it comes to strokes gained off the tee, strokes gained on approach and strokes gained tee to green.
While the hot and humid weather — along with a scoring-friendly course setup — puts many members of this year’s ISCO Championship field in position to do well in these categories, one player’s statistical profile pairs well with Keene Trace.
Carson Young, a 29-year-old former Clemson golfer, has an above average statistical profile in the following key categories this season on the PGA Tour:
▪ Strokes gained total: 0.448 (49th on Tour)
▪ Strokes gained off the tee: 0.315 (39th on Tour)
▪ Strokes gained approach to green: 0.201 (67th on Tour)
Young is an accurate driver of the golf ball (25th on Tour in driving accuracy this season) and his average driving distance of 294 yards will get a boost this week because of the high-flying conditions at Keene Trace. Young is also a prime candidate to stick the ball close on his approach shots: He ranks 12th on the PGA Tour in proximity this season, which is defined as the average distance the ball is from the hole after a player’s approach shot.
Form is also on Young’s side: Two of his three best finishes this season have come within his last three events, a tie for 14th at the RBC Canadian Open in June and a tie for fifth at the John Deere Classic last week.
One final statistical nugget to solidify Young’s case as a contender to win this week?
He’s been putting the ball extremely well, having averaged 1.685 strokes gained putting across his last five tournaments.
Bet: Carson Young to win the ISCO Championship.
Odds: bet365 (+2800, meaning you’ll win $2,800 on a $100 bet or, to use horse racing parlance, 28-1), BetMGM (+3300), DraftKings (+3500), FanDuel (+4000).
Amateur Luke Clanton to finish top five in the ISCO Championship
Result: Clanton finished in a tie for 37th at -13 overall.
What a summer it’s been for rising Florida State junior Luke Clanton. The 20-year-old Clanton is already a perfect 3-for-3 on the PGA Tour when it comes to making cuts, having finished in a tie for 41st at the U.S. Open, a tie for 10th at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and a tie for second last week at the John Deere Classic.
Clanton’s top-10 showings at the Rocket Mortgage and John Deere came in consecutive weeks, which made him the first amateur to record consecutive top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour since 1958.
Now, Clanton has been installed (remarkably, given his amateur status) as the betting favorite to win this week’s ISCO Championship.
Part of this undoubtedly has to do with a largely unproven, and lackluster, field at the ISCO Championship: According to the Official World Golf Ranking, Argentinian PGA Tour rookie Alejandro Tosti is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 107.
But Clanton’s credentials in big-time, high-pressure situations are already impressive, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Clanton closed last week’s John Deere Classic with a final round 63 (-8), which is the same score he carded in last Thursday’s opening round at the same event.
“To be here this week again and be playing another PGA Tour event’s awesome. I mean, the opportunities that have kind of been given to me has been incredible,” Clanton said Tuesday during a media session in Nicholasville. “If we keep kind of staying in our process and keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll be alright.”
There’s recent precedent for an amateur winning on the PGA Tour — then-amateur and former Alabama golfer Nick Dunlap won The American Express in January, becoming the PGA Tour’s first amateur winner since 1991 — and there’s plenty of reasons to believe Clanton will be in contention for a tournament win this week.
Bet: Luke Clanton to finish top five at the ISCO Championship.
Odds: BetMGM (+220), DraftKings (+240), FanDuel (+240), bet365 (+300).
Rico Hoey to finish in the top 10 at the ISCO Championship
Result: Hoey finished in a tie for second. He was part of a five-man playoff to decide the ISCO Championship title, but was eliminated on the first hole of what became a three-hole playoff.
Refer to the above section on Carson Young for the traits that seem to produce winners year after year at Keene Trace, and apply that same logic to Rico Hoey.
The 28-year-old former University of Southern California golfer has been an absolute monster off the tee this season in 35 measured PGA Tour rounds.
▪ Strokes gained off the tee: 0.676 (7th on Tour)
▪ Average driving distance: 308 yards (24th on Tour)
▪ Total driving (computed by totaling a player’s rank in both driving distance and accuracy): 119 (25th on Tour).
While Hoey’s putting ability is a concern (he’s 156th on Tour in putts per round this season), he continues to put himself into advantageous positions on the greens: Hoey is 31st on Tour in greens in regulation percentage and is also a plus player when it comes to proximity compared to the field.
Like Young, form is also trending in Hoey’s direction. After missing five straight cuts, Hoey has finished in a tie for sixth (Rocket Mortgage Classic) and in a tie for 26th (John Deere Classic) in back-to-back weeks.
Bet: Rico Hoey to finish in the top 10 at ISCO Championship.
Odds: DraftKings (+310), BetMGM (+350), FanDuel (+360), bet365 (+425).
ISCO Championship to be decided in a playoff
Result: For the third time in four years, the ISCO Championship was decided in a playoff. England’s Harry Hall won a five-man playoff for the tournament crown, which lasted three holes.
What the ISCO Championship has traditionally lacked in star power and name-recognition for the golfers in the field, it has usually more than made up for in drama.
The past five editions of the ISCO Championship have all been played at Keene Trace. Two of those previous five editions were decided in a playoff, and the other three were decided by just one stroke.
Since the event was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two of the last three editions of the ISCO went to a playoff: Irishman Seamus Power outlasted J.T. Poston in an epic six-hole playoff in 2021, while it took just one playoff hole for Vincent Norrman to top Nathan Kimsey last year.
There’s a good chance that come Sunday evening, the ISCO Championship leaderboard features several players near the top gunning for what would be their first PGA Tour or DP World Tour victory.
Handling that pressure to avoid a playoff is much easier said than done, especially since the tournament’s finishing hole is a par-4 built around a lake and with four bunkers guarding the green.
18th at Keene Trace: If you know, you know.
Bet: ISCO Championship to have a playoff/winning margin for ISCO Championship to be a playoff.
Odds: bet365 (+300), DraftKings (+350), BetMGM (+350).
PGA Tour ISCO Championship
When: Thursday through Sunday
Where: Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville (Champions Course)
TV: 4:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 4-7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (Golf Channel)
Streaming: Peacock
Tickets: Visit iscochampionship.com
This story was originally published July 10, 2024 at 10:29 AM.
