First-time champion wins Kentucky’s PGA Tour event with low-scoring final round
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- William Mouw won PGA Tour's ISCO Championship at Hurstbourne Country Club in Louisville.
- Mouw won the tournament at 10-under-par and shot a final round 61 (-9).
- Mouw takes home $720,000 for winning the ISCO.
The PGA Tour’s return to the Derby City was decided in fitting fashion on Sunday afternoon: With a late charge down the stretch that nobody saw coming.
William Mouw carded a final round 61 (-9) to win the PGA Tour’s ISCO Championship at 10-under-par at Hurstbourne Country Club in Louisville.
Mouw — a 24-year-old from California who played college golf at Pepperdine — carded nine birdies, nine pars and zero bogeys or worse in his scintillating Sunday performance to earn his first PGA Tour victory.
“I really wanted to play a clean weekend. That was a good goal of mine,” Mouw said following his final round effort. “I’ve been in this position before coming into the weekend, and really haven’t done all that well. But I learned a lot. I knew that I could (have) a really good weekend, and come through. I was very comfortable out there.”
This was the lowest round of golf that Mouw has shot on tour. The final round 61 fired by Mouw is the lowest final round score by a PGA Tour winner since Ludvig Aberg in November 2023.
Mouw shot 67 (-3) in the first round, 73 (+3) in the second round and 69 (-1) in the third round at Hurstbourne, which played as a par-70 course this week.
Mouw began Sunday’s final round seven shots back of the tournament lead. His victory marked the largest final-round comeback on the PGA Tour since Jon Rahm in January 2023. This was also the largest final-round comeback in ISCO Championship history. Mouw rose 24 spots up the leaderboard during the final round.
Furthermore, Mouw is the first player to win his first PGA Tour event with a final-round comeback of seven or more shots since Smylie Kaufman in October 2015.
The win gives Mouw a plethora of benefits on the PGA Tour. Mouw now has an exemption on the PGA Tour through 2027. He also earned playing spots in several prestigious events for next season, including the 2026 PGA Championship. He took home $720,000 for winning the ISCO from the tournament’s $4 million purse.
“I’ve dreamed of this as a kid, now to have it as a possibility is very cool,” Mouw added.
Mouw won the ISCO by one shot over Paul Peterson, who had birdie putts on both the 17th and 18th holes that would have forced a playoff.
Chan Kim, who led the tournament after both the first and second rounds, finished in a tie for 14th at 3-under-par. Peterson, who led the tournament after the third round, finished in solo second at 9-under par. Manuel Elvira of Spain was solo third at 7-under-par.
Aside from Scott Piercy’s three-shot victory in the first ISCO Championship in 2015, the event has been decided by one shot or in a playoff in each of the nine editions of it since.
A pair of weather delays that combined to last more than three hours occurred during Saturday’s third round at the ISCO, which forced several golfers — including Kim and Peterson — to finish their third rounds early Sunday morning.
Kim led the tournament by four shots after he also shot a 61 in the first round. This marked the largest 18-hole lead in the event’s history and matched the largest first-round lead on the PGA Tour this season.
Previously known as the Barbasol Championship, the annual PGA Tour event was first held in Alabama in 2015 before relocating to Champions at Keene Trace golf course in Nicholasville in 2018. This was the first year that the ISCO was held at Hurstbourne, which profiled as one of the shortest courses on this year’s tour schedule.
By taking place at Hurstbourne, this marked the first time a non-major event on the PGA Tour took place in Louisville since the Kentucky Derby Open in the late 1950s at Seneca Golf Course.
With Mouw’s victory, the last five winners of the ISCO Championship have been first-time winners on the PGA Tour: Mouw joins Harry Hall (2024), Vincent Norrman (2023), Trey Mullinax (2022) and Seamus Power (2021) in this regard.
Mouw’s victory in the ISCO was also unexpected given his recent form. Entering this week in Louisville, Mouw had made only eight cuts in 17 PGA Tour events this season. His lone top-10 finish of the season came in the Puerto Rico Open in early March (tied for sixth). Mouw had missed the cut in three of his last four PGA Tour events, including one week ago at the John Deere Classic.
The ISCO was Mouw’s 20th start on the PGA Tour. He’s the third rookie to win on the PGA Tour this season.
A field of 156 golfers began this week’s ISCO Championship at Hurstbourne. A total of 68 golfers played the weekend after making the cut, which came down at 1-over-par following Friday’s second round.
That offered a stark contrast to last year’s tournament at Keene Trace, which set a PGA Tour record for the lowest 36-hole cut-line score in an individual, stroke-play event at 8-under-par.
Four golfers with Kentucky connections made the cut at this year’s ISCO: Vince Whaley, Will Gordon, Josh Teater and Stephen Stallings Jr.
Whaley finished in a tie for fourth at 6-under-par. Gordon came in a tie for 14th at 3-under-par. Teater finished in a tie for 40th at 1-over-par. Stallings came home in a tie for 67th at 9-over-par.
Campbellsville native J.B. Holmes, a two-time Ryder Cup winner and former UK golf star, made his first PGA Tour start since October 2024 this week at the ISCO. Holmes shot 74 (+4) in the first round and 72 (+2) in the second round. He missed the cut at 6-over-par.
ISCO Championship winner grew up on an egg farm in California
In winning in only his 20th start on the PGA Tour, Mouw is likely a new name to most golf fans.
One detail in particular from his PGA Tour profile page will likely raise some eyebrows.
Mouw’s parents, Billy and Michelle, own and operate Billy’s Egg Farm in Chino, California. Located just outside of Los Angeles, the farm has been in business for more than 30 years.
Turns out, there are plenty of translatable life lessons that come with growing up on an egg farm.
“The egg farm has been my foundation for sure,” Mouw said. “... To be born and raised on a farm taught me work ethic and hard work and that nothing’s earned and that you have to work for everything.”
And those life lessons can also translate to the golf course, too.
“It’s such a big part of it because especially with the egg farm, it’s just learning about work ethic... And turning bad breaks into opportunities, to use that to make something better than what you had before,” Mouw added.
Mouw went on to say that he’s a simple guy, perhaps another detail that can be traced back to his upbringing.
In keeping with that theme, he said that he plans to celebrate his first PGA Tour victory by having some Dairy Queen Blizzards with his wife, Hannah, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child.
This story was originally published July 13, 2025 at 6:24 PM.
