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February 8, 2007

The International is kaput

The International -- the idiosyncratic PGA Tour event at Castle Pines GC in Colorado that used a modified Stableford scoring system rather than the traditional stoke play format -- will shut down for good after this year's tournament, another casualty of the increasing stratification of tournaments on the PGA Tour. John Hawkins has the story.

But for the support of Shell Oil, the same thing could happen to the Houston Open, for the reasons noted here and here. The prospects for the other Texas tournaments are not all that rosy, either. PGA Tour, are you listening?

Meanwhile, Doug Ferguson reports that several cities are vying to replace the International:

The cancellation [of the International] leaves a hole in the PGA Tour schedule on July 5-8, but tour officials have been working on a contingency plan over the last month and are expected to announce a replacement by April.

The leading candidate is Washington, the largest U.S. market without a PGA Tour event. The nation's capital had a tour event since 1968, but that presumably ended when title sponsor Booz Allen bailed out last year because it was not part of the FedExCup portion of the PGA Tour schedule.

Other markets under consideration are Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Kansas City.

Posted by Tom at February 8, 2007 4:23 AM |

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