William Mouw shot a career-best 9-under-par 61 on Sunday to win the ISCO Championship for his first PGA Tour title in his 20th start.
Mouw, 24, climbed 24 spots up the leaderboard to finish at 10-under 270 at Hurstbourne Country Club in Louisville, Ky. He had to wait nearly two hours to see if third-round leader Paul Peterson made a 55-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th to send the tournament to extra holes.
Peterson missed and finished with a 1-under 69 to complete four rounds at 9 under and in second place at the PGA Tour alternate event. Mouw was on the driving range at the time, trying to prepare for a possible playoff.
“I wasn’t paying too close attention to it, but Paul’s a very good putter and I expected him to make a few putts coming down the stretch, and he did,” Mouw said. “Like I said, I was ready for a playoff. I was mentally — I didn’t win the golf tournament until the last putt dropped. I was very — I don’t want to say I was hoping for a playoff, but I was really ready for it, and it didn’t happen that way but that was it, yeah.”
Mouw got off to a hot start, making birdies at the first three holes and five on the front nine. He birdied both par-5 holes, Nos. 7 and 10, and totaled nine in the bogey-free round, including an 18-footer on the par-3 17th.
“Well, I played very good golf this week,” Mouw said when asked about starting the round seven strokes off the lead. “There was a lot of close calls and I knew that if everything clicked and I did the right things, I could go pretty low. I’m just thrilled that it happened.”
Peterson, who was seeking his first PGA Tour win in his 20th start, had a rougher go, with bogeys at the Nos. 3 and 6 for +2 on the front nine. He made his lone birdies of the round — at Nos. 10, 14 and 16 — on the back nine.
“I don’t know, struggled on the front nine,” said Peterson, 37, who notched his first runner-up finish. “I mean, I hit it in that fairway bunker on 3 and couldn’t get on the green, so I’ll take that bogey. Tough to three-putt there on 6, but in my defense, I didn’t hit that green all week, I don’t think many people did, so it’s tough to know how fast or slow that green was going to be from as far as I was.”
Spain’s Manuel Elvira finished third at 7 under with a 66 on Sunday. Amateur Jackson Koivun, 20, who plays at Auburn University, tied for sixth at 5 under. Chan Kim, who led after two days with rounds of 61 and 68, went 75-73 the rest of the way to tie for 14th at 3 under.
Kim and Peterson were among the dozen golfers who had to complete the third round on Sunday morning following multiple suspensions on Saturday due to inclement weather before play was halted because of darkness.
–Field Level Media
