Kentucky’s annual PGA event makes history: ISCO Championship has lowest cut score ever.

PGA Tour history was made Friday in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

The 2024 edition of the ISCO Championship — the event formerly known as the Barbasol Championship — has set a record for the lowest 36-hole cut-line score in an individual, stroke-play event in PGA Tour history.

Following the completion of two rounds of the tournament (which is a co-sanctioned event with the DP World Tour), the cut was set at -8 overall.

This replaced the 2020 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas (which had a -7 cut line) for the lowest score required to play the weekend in an individual, stroke-play event on the PGA Tour.

In its previous five editions at Keene Trace, the ISCO Championship had cut-line scores of -3 (2018), -4 (2019), -4 (2021), -5 (2022) and -4 (2023).

Why was the scoring so low this week at Keene Trace?

“We have perfect conditions this week,” said Cooper Musselman, a Louisville native and former UK men’s golfer who carded a 62 (-10) during his second round Friday. “Got great weather. The greens are relatively soft, and not a whole lot of wind out there. So, these guys are on the PGA Tour for a reason. They’re pretty good. So if you give them perfect conditions, they know how to execute.”

Whether this year under new title sponsor ISCO Industries — a total piping solutions provider headquartered in Louisville — or under its previous Barbasol name, Central Kentucky’s annual PGA Tour event has long carried the reputation of being a tournament where the scores are abnormally low.

The overall winning scores for the event have been -23 (Troy Merritt in 2018), -26 (Jim Herman in 2019), -21 (Seamus Power, via a playoff, in 2021), -25 (Trey Mullinax in 2022) and -22 (Vincent Norrman, via a playoff, in 2023).

This year’s event is on pace to shatter those already absurdly low final scores: After the conclusion of Friday’s second round, Pierceson Coody paced the field with a -16 score.

“I think the course in general is just short. The par 5s are very gettable and the greens are super soft,” added Josh Teater, the local fan favorite who ended up missing the cut this year, despite carding a -7 overall score after two rounds.

“When the greens are soft, it doesn’t really matter what the length is, guys just attack. You can be pretty aggressive with your putter too, because they’re not rolling super fast. That’s just a recipe for low scores.”

In addition to Teater, another local golf favorite — former St. Xavier and UK golfer Stephen Stallings Jr. — also missed the cut with a -7 overall score. Stallings had a putt to make the cut on the 18th green Friday evening, but missed it by just 10 inches.

Detailed records of PGA Tour events exist since 1970, but Friday marked the first time a player needed to be at -8 after two rounds in order to keep playing on the weekend.

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