For the second straight year, the ISCO Championship went into a playoff, but this time it was a super-sized match with five players tied at the end of regulation at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky.
Ultimately, England’s Harry Hall won with a dramatic chip-in from 45 feet on the third hole of the playoff, earning his first PGA Tour victory just days before his wife, Jordan, gave birth to their first child, a daughter.
But it took quite some time to reach a final conclusion.
Matt Nesmith shot a 64 early Sunday to finish at 22 under par and stayed there for more than two hours while the others finished well behind. He bogeyed the 72nd hole. Hall, Zach Blair, Rico Hoey and Pierson Coody followed. Blair and Coody both birdied the final hole, Hall for par and Hoey for par, and both should have won but bogeyed.
So the five returned to the 18th hole to decide the winner, each looking to win their first PGA Tour victory.
Nesmith went for birdie on the first round but missed from outside 8 feet. Hoey and Blair each made bogeys. Hall, Coody and Nesmith each went for birdie on the second round, also on the 18th hole, but all three missed.
We return to the third playoff hole, and then move on to the par-3 ninth for a change.
All three missed the green; Coody and Nesmith were long, Hole was right. On his first attempt, Hole chipped in from 45 feet for birdie, but when the other two couldn’t match it, an emotional Hall doffed his hat and celebrated that he’d finally had enough. (For his efforts, Hall won $720,000 of the first place prize, out of a total prize purse of $4 million.)
“This is amazing,” said Hall, 26. “Now I can take a week off. My standing in the FedExCup was kind of on the line. I had to play every week. So it’s nice to think that now I might not have to do that. I’m super happy.”
The other four also had chances to win at some point in the second half. Hoey only needed a par on the 72nd hole, but he blasted his approach shot into the water and then made an up-and-down bogey to get back into the playoff.
“All things considered, it’s been a great week,” Hoey said. “If someone would’ve told me I had a chance to win, I probably would’ve laughed in their face because the attendance this season hasn’t been what I’d hoped it would be. I’m going to keep working hard, I’m going to keep fighting, and hopefully I can go out there next week and keep fighting and give myself another chance.”
Amateur Luke Clanton was trying to become the first amateur in history to finish in the top 10 in three consecutive PGA TOUR events. He tied for 10th two weeks ago and tied for second at the John Deere Classic last week. Here in Kentucky, he finished tied for 37th with shots of 70-65-69-71, nine strokes out of the playoff. —Jay Coffin
The breakdown of prize money won by each qualifying player is as follows:
Winner: Harry Hall, -22/266, $720,000
T-2: Pierson Coody, -22/266, $268,000
T-2: Matt Nesmith, -22/266, $268,000
T-2: Rico Hoey, -22/266, $268,000
T-2: Zach Blair, -22/266, $268,000
T-6: SY Nou, -20/268, $130,500
T-6: Ben Taylor, -20/268, $130,500
T-6: Neil Shipley, -20/268, $130,500
T-6: Sam Bairstow, -20/268, $130,500
T-10: Chan Kim, -19/269, $93,000
T-10Brandon Wu -19/269, $93,000
T-10: Lant Griffin, -19/269, $93,000
T-10: Chez Levy, -19/269, $93,000
T-10: Johannes Wehrmann, -19/269, $93,000
15: Patrick Fishburne, -18/270, $73,000
T-16: Max Rotluff, -17/271, $61,000
T-16: Mac Meissner, -17/271, $61,000
T-16: Adrien Sadier, -17/271, $61,000
T-16: Ángel Hidalgo Portillo, -17/271, $61,000
T-16Andy Sullivan -17/271, $61,000
T-21: Callum Talen, -16/272, $43,600
T-21: Ryan Moore, -16/272, $43,600
T-21Austin Smollerman, -16/272, $43,600
T-21: Cody Gribble, -16/272, $43,600
T-25: Henrik Norlander, -15/273, $30,733.33
T-25: Sam Ryder, -15/273, $30,733.33
T-25: Spencer Cross, -15/273, $30,733.33
T-25: William McGirt, -15/273, $30,733.33
T-25: Mathis Bethard, -15/273, $30,733.33
T-25: Kevin Chappell, -15/273, $30,733.33
T-31: Andrea Pavón, -14/274, $23,400
T-31: Cooper Musselman, -14/274, $23,400
T-31: Ryan McCormick, -14/274, $23,400
T-31: Dylan Wu, -14/274, $23,400
T-31Ben Silberman, -14/274, $23,400
T-31: Jack Kruijswijk, -14/274, $23,400
T-37: Tom Vaillant, -13/275, $17,400
T-37: Hayden Springer, -13/275, $17,400
T-37: Luke Clanton, -13/275, $0 (amateur)
T-37Russell Knox -13/275, $17,400
T-37: Fabrizio Zanotti, -13/275, $17,400
T-37: David Lipsky, -13/275, $17,400
T-37Ricardo Gouveia -13/275, $17,400
T-37: Alex Smalley, -13/275, $17,400
T-45: MJ Duffew, -12/276, $12,632
T-45J. J. Spahn, -12/276, $12,632
T-45: Chad Ramey, -12/276, $12,632
T-45: Lucas Nemetz, -12/276, $12,632
T-45: Kevin Tway, -12/276, $12,632
T-50: Jonathan Byrd, -11/277, $10,306.67
T-50: Paton Kiziel, -11/277, $10,306.67
T-50: Francesco Laporta, -11/277, $10,306.67
T-53: Roger Sloan, -10/278, $9,720
T-53: Brandt Snedeker, -10/278, $9,720
T-55: Andrew Wilson, -9/279, $9,360
T-55Sebastian Fredriksen, -9/279, $9,360
T-55: SH Kim, -9/279, $9,360
T-55: Marcus Kinhardt, -9/279, $9,360
T-59: Nick Hardy, -8/280, $9,040
T-59: Hayden Buckley, -8/280, $9,040
T-59: Aaron Baddeley, -8/280, $9,040
T-59Troy Merritt, -8/280, $9,040
63: Garrick Higo, -7/281, $8,840
T-64: Kevin Kisner, -6/282, $8,680
T-64: Bill Haas, -6/282, $8,680
T-64: James Hahn, -6/282, $8,680
67: Paul Version, -4/284, $8,520
