It’s a wonder Jack Vickers wasn’t hauled off to jail four decades ago as he traipsed – and trespassed – through a piney highlands area south of Denver in search of a dream.
A Kansas-bred oilman new to the Denver area, Vickers strapped on his hiking boots and didn’t allow barbed wire, prickly thistle or private property to hinder his vision of establishing a preeminent golf club. Borrowing a blueprint from Augusta National, Vickers hoped the beauty and prestige of the spot he had found would attract members from throughout the country. And each of the world’s best professional golfers would circle the date of an annual invitational tournament.
“I took a lot of chapters out of the Augusta book because I thought it was the best,” said Vickers, a member of more than a dozen private golf clubs from coast to coast, including Augusta National. “We’re not Augusta, but I think we do a pretty good job. I think the PGA Tour and its players will tell you that.”
In celebrating its 20th year on the tour, Castle Pines has reason to boast.
Featuring an unconventional scoring format, the modified Stableford, and awkwardly situated the week before the PGA Championship, The International doesn’t get every marquee player, as Vickers envisioned. But it draws more big names than many regular tour events, according to research conducted by The Denver Post.
The study considered 15 regular tour events generally viewed as rating on the first tier below major championships, world championships, The Players Championship and the season-ending Tour Championship. Entry lists of each event for the past five years, 2000-04, were compared with the names of players finishing those years in the top 10 of the world ranking.
The International ranked eighth among the 15 prominent tournaments in the study, with 50 percent of the world’s top 10 players coming to Colorado on an annual basis. an average of fivecq of the world’s top 10 players annually.
Ranking below The International were the Ford Championship at Doral, the Nissan Open, the BellSouth Classic, the Western Open, the Buick Open in Michigan, Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines and Deutsche Bank Championship.
Heading the list is Bay Hill (70 percent of top-10 players), followed by the Wachovia Championship, the Memorial, Barclays Classic at Westchester (formerly Buick Classic), Byron Nelson Championship, Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the FBR Open (formerly Phoenix Open).
If all the regular tour events were surveyed, including the St. Jude Classics, John Deere Classics and Reno-Tahoe Opens of the world, The International would rate among the top quarter in field quality.
“We’ve always considered ourselves to be in the top echelon of the top tournaments,” said Larry Thiel, executive director of The International. “This (result) is nice to see, considering the position we’re in on the tour schedule.”
The one negative has been an inability to attract Tiger Woods, the biggest name in golf. Woods hasn’t played at Castle Pines since 1999, the last time the event was scheduled the week after the PGA Championship. With its current slotting the week before the PGA, Woods has been out of reach as he takes time off to practice. That’s one reason The International is looking for a date change starting in 2007, when the new TV contracts go into effect.
But The International need not make any apologies for the strength of its field, attracting more than its share of big names.
Thiel believes The International always has a good shot of landing the other members of professional golf’s so-called “Big Five” – Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen – no matter when it is played.
Each is a big hitter who loves the Jack Nicklaus design, which features reachable par 5s and other risk-reward opportunities that, under the modified Stableford scoring format, reward more for birdies (2 points) than they penalize for bogeys (minus 1 point). Mickelson (twice), Els and Singh are former International champions. Goosen tied Singh for second behind Davis Love III in 2003.
“It’s a wonderful place,” Mickelson said, “and I’ve always liked the challenge of adjusting for the altitude. Some players hate that; I enjoy it.”
Most tournaments ranking ahead of The International have inherent advantages, Thiel said. Bay Hill (Arnold Palmer), the Memorial (Nicklaus) and the Byron Nelson Championship are hosted by living legends. And four of the seven tournaments placing above The International are scheduled in February (FBR Open, Pebble Beach National Pro-Am) or March (Ford Championship at Doral, Bay Hill Invitational).
“Players are going to enter those early events to get their game honed for The Players Championship and the Masters,” Thiel said.
Late summer golf events can be a tough sell, but The International does better than most. Els, who will miss this year because of an injury, had not missed a trip to Castle Pines since he accepted a sponsor’s invitation from Vickers in 1991 at age 21. Mickelson had played 12 in a row before missing a year ago. Love, a two-time champion, has played in 14 Internationals. Singh has entered nine. Since turning pro in 1999, Garcia had played in five consecutive Internationals before skipping the event last year.
Henry Hughes, PGA Tour senior vice president and chief of operations, isn’t surprised by the players’ loyalty. He includes The International among the tour’s premier events. Hughes joined the PGA Tour in 1984, two years before The International, and recalled the curiosity – and skepticism – that greeted its debut.
Risky format
The International is the only regular tour event that departs from stroke play. Red numbers on the scoreboard are bad at The International but good everywhere else.
It took some time to get used to.
“Golf is a very conservative, structured sport that doesn’t go through many changes,” Hughes said. “So when Jack Vickers came up with an innovation and said, ‘Let’s try a different format on a golf course at altitude,’ there were people who wondered if this was something that would work.
“Players love the format. It’s just different. Add to that the way our players are treated there, it’s one of their favorite stops.”
Clubhouse milkshakes became a trademark attraction for players. Early week outings to the mountains or a prime trout stream are used to this day to attract loyalty. Vickers figured The International had to do whatever it could to sell itself and keep players coming back.
“The fabulous quality of the service there has been a measuring stick,” said Joey Sindelar, the 1988 International champion.
The International’s signature is its modified Stableford format. It’s where eagles dare, tantalizing players with 5 points for each. Players trying to catch the leader might as well go for the gusto on par 5s because spraying a tee shot into trouble would only mean a loss of 1 point if a bogey was salvaged.
Double bogeys (minus 3 points) certainly hurt, but the reward almost always outweighs the risk.
“I can’t imagine playing that format at another course,” said Duffy Waldorf, who was fourth in the 2004 event, his 16th appearance.
Penultimate opportunity
History shows it usually takes at least 20 birdies and a couple of eagles to win The International. The decisive hole is often the par-5, 492-yard No. 17, where several champions need an eagle on Sunday to win, including Rod Pampling last year and former champs John Cook (1987), Steve Lowery (1994), Clarence Rose (1996), Singh (1998) and Rich Beem (2002).
Frequent lead changes can make the scoreboard resemble a NASCAR race.
“It seems like something neat always happens on the last few holes,” said Bob Tway, who played in the inaugural International.
That’s entertainment, said Lowery, who in 2003 holed out second shots from the fairway for an eagle on the 403-yard, par-4 15th and a double eagle on 17 but still came up a point short of Beem.
“Most weeks on the tour we do the same thing over and over – high rough, long golf courses, quick greens, chop it out of the rough,” Lowery said. “That isn’t any fun. The International is different. We have to remember we’re in the entertainment business. We want to put on a show.”
Through 19 years, the reviews have been decidedly favorable.
Staff writer Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-820-5456 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
