Golf Roundup : Pros Shooting in the Dark in Colorado Event

Doug Tewell may have the inside track on solving the peculiar format that confused and mystified some of golf’s leading pros Thursday in the first round of the $1-million International tournament at Castle Rock, Colo.

“You find yourself thinking, ‘Now what is it I’m trying to do?’ ” Hale Irwin said.

Craig Stadler may have put it in focus when he walked off the 18th green at the Castle Pines Golf Club and said: “I don’t know what I shot. And I don’t care.”

His attitude is understandable in an event where medal scores don’t count, the lead through the first three days of play is completely meaningless and Tewell figured out a way he may be able to make a double bogey work to his advantage.

The tournament uses a modified Stableford scoring system in which a player’s medal score has no bearing. Points are awarded for eagles (5) and birdies (2), and points are subtracted for bogeys (-1) and double bogeys and higher (-3). Only the player’s point total counts.

Previously, the field was cut after each round and there was no carryover of point totals from one round to another.

This year, however, the 150-man field is scheduled to play two rounds, with points carried over from Thursday to today, before the 72 players with the highest point totals advance to Saturday’s play.

Saturday, they will all start from zero again, competing for 24 places in Sunday’s final round, when the field again will start from zero.

Wayne Westner of South Africa led the first-day point-getters with 16.

Price, Bill Britton, Brad Fabel and Bob Gilder had 12 points apiece. Steve Elkington of Australia had 11, and Tewell and Corey Pavin each had 10.

Tewell said his 10-point total may be too much.

“How are they going to pair us for Saturday? Will they pair by scores?” he asked.

“If they do, and I get another eight or 10 points tomorrow, I may have to start thinking about making a couple of double bogeys to get the total down and get an earlier starting time when the wind doesn’t blow so much and the greens aren’t spiked up,” Tewell said.

Would he purposely make bogey or double bogey to arrive at a more advantageous starting time?

He shrugged. “For this much money (total purse of $1 million, with $180,000 to the winner) I might have to think about it,” he said.

Jack Nicklaus had eight points, Greg Norman five.

Calvin Peete shot a six-under-par 65 to take the lead after the two rounds of a $256,000 tournament at Chepstow, Wales.

Peete’s round earned him 42 points under the Stableford scoring system being employed at the Welsh tournament. He had 35 points in the first round and held the lead with 77.

Carl Mason of England and Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe were tied for second place, a point behind Peete.