The International

The International (styled as The INTERNATIONAL) was a professional golf tournament played from 1986 to 2006 at the Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock, Colorado. It had the distinction of being one of two PGA Tour events not conducted at traditional stroke play, the only other exception is the match play event, the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. The International was the only tournament to use the Modified Stableford scoring system, enacted because of the significant elevation of the venue, which averages 6500 feet (1980 m) above sea level.

Beginning in 2007, The International was scheduled to change dates to be played during the first full weekend of July (July 5-8, 2007 and July 4-7, 2008), midway between the U.S. Open and the British Open. Tournament officials hoped this new date would draw even more top-ranked players, such as Tiger Woods, as it would no longer be contested the week before (or after) a major championship (PGA Championship). Even with the change in dates, both tournament founder Jack Vickers and the Castle Pines GC membership were apparently not happy with the overall direction the PGA Tour was taking.^{[1] [2]}

Also (according to the ticker on the FSN Final Score), the tourney has not generated sufficient sponsorship money to pay the purses. The last presenting sponsor (as shown below) was Qwest, in 2003; the last title sponsor was Sprint, in 1999.

On February 8, 2007, the PGA Tour announced the permanent cancellation of the International.^[3] This tournament will be replaced by another to be hosted by the Tiger Woods Foundation and to be held in the Washington, D.C. area. On March 7, 2007, the replacement tournament was announced to be the AT&T National. The new tournament uses standard stroke play rather than the Stableford scoring that the International had used.

Scoring

The Modified Stableford system gives golfers points on each hole, based on the golfer's score relative to par. It is designed to reward players for taking chances to go for birdies (or better), as the reward for a low score on a hole is typically greater than the punishment for a poor score. The golfer's scores on each hole in his round are added. The scoring operates as follows:

• Albatross (double eagle): +8
• Eagle: +5
• Birdie: +2
• Par: 0
• Bogey: -1
• Double bogey or worse: -3

Holes in one are treated as the score relative to par; an ace on a par-3 hole would be considered an eagle and scored as +5.

The tournament was also notable for feature multiple cuts, including a cut after the third round, and also for providing a clean slate to the survivors of that cut, so that every player on the final day started with zero, making the player with the best final day score the overall winner, regardless of the scores from the previous 3 days. This cut and clean slate format was featured from 1986-1992; beginning in 1993, the tournament changed to only a traditional cut after the 2nd round and the final results were based on aggregate 4 round scores, while still featuring the Modified Stableford scoring system.

Winners

The International

• 2006 Dean Wilson - United States
• 2005 Retief Goosen - South Africa
• 2004 Rod Pampling - Australia
• 2003 Davis Love III - United States

The International presented by Qwest

• 2002 Rich Beem - United States
• 2001 Tom Pernice, Jr. - United States
• 2000 Ernie Els - South Africa

Sprint International

• 1999 David Toms - United States
• 1998 Vijay Singh - Fiji
• 1997 Phil Mickelson - United States
• 1996 Clarence Rose - United States
• 1995 Lee Janzen - United States
• 1994 Steve Lowery - United States

The International

• 1993 Phil Mickelson - United States
• 1992 Brad Faxon - United States
• 1991 José María Olazábal - Spain
• 1990 Davis Love III - United States
• 1989 Greg Norman - Australia
• 1988 Joey Sindelar - United States
• 1987 John Cook - United States
• 1986 Ken Green - United States

References

External links

• Official tournament website
• The INTERNATIONAL page on PGATOUR.com