The International (golf)

Colorado

For twenty-one years, a PGA Tour event here scrapped counting strokes and handed out points for gambling.

culturehistorical

Golf usually counts strokes. Fewest wins. At Castle Pines, the tournament called The International threw that out. It used a points system instead, the only event on the PGA Tour to do so. A birdie earned you points. A bogey cost you far less than the birdie was worth. Two holes played safe, two pars, got you nothing at all. Make a birdie and a bogey over those same two holes and you came out ahead. The whole thing rewarded taking chances. The reason was the air. The course sits around six thousand three hundred feet above sea level, and the ball behaves differently up here. The tournament ran from nineteen eighty-six through two thousand six. When the Tour cancelled it, the replacement event moved to the Washington area, near sea level, and went back to plain stroke play.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
The International was the only tournament to use the Modified Stableford scoring system, enacted because of the significant elevation of the venue, which averages 6,300 feet (1,920 m) above sea level.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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