The PGA Tour hasn't been to Castle Pines since 2006. Here's what players are saying about it playing 8,130 yards

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — It's been nearly 20 years since the PGA Tour has visited Castle Pines Golf Club, former home of the International. That Tour staple, which used the Modified Stableford scoring system, was discontinued after 21 years in 2006 at the dawn of the FedEx Cup. Since then, the entire course has been renovated by Jack Nicklaus, the original course designer in 1981, who has made at least 10 trips to the course in the last decade, and Total Turf.

Six green complexes have been moved or modified and more than 70 bunkers on the course have been reshaped or rebuilt.

Castle Pines was always a 'big boys' course' — it played 7,053 yards in 1986 and 7,619 yards in 2006 — but that is even more the case this year. Several new tees were built stretching the course to 8,130 yards, making it the longest in Tour history. That, of course, doesn't factor in the altitude in the Mile High City. The course has 400 feet of elevation change with the highest point at 6,400 feet above sea level. Factoring in the ball going 7 percent further in the thin air, it should play much like a typical 7,400-yard Tour course. Here's some advice from the pros on how to deal with the altitude and getting dialed in for Castle Pines and the 2024 BMW Championship.

Wyndham Clark

This is probably the most challenging course in Colorado because you do — I mean, first the altitude, and then you have a lot of elevation change, which can be a challenge.

It's very tough off the tee, and then around the greens you have to be very precise. At altitude where we normally don't play, that's going to be difficult. You're going to see a lot of us Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, spending a lot of time on the range with TrackMans and all the measuring devices on distance, trying to figure out how far the ball is going.

If you see us airmail some shots over the green by 10, 15 yards, it's not because we're bad. We're just not used to playing at this altitude. That's going to be the biggest challenge is distance control and making sure our 8-iron is flying the distance we want and so on.

I think everyone starting Thursday will feel comfortable with (the altitude). A lot of guys, we play a few events at altitude and have played them.

The tough thing with elevation is it's not as consistent as sea level. So if you hit your 7-iron always about 185 at sea level, it constantly goes 185. Here at altitude, now let's call it 205. Well, it can go 205 one shot and then 210 the next shot and then 200 the next shot. There's a little inconsistency in the thin air and altitude depending on how high you hit it. If anyone seems to err, go long or short, it's probably because of trajectory. That's going to be the challenge. Everyone is going to have a good idea of how far they're hitting the clubs, but you can sometimes just hit one forever in Colorado.

We're all so good now and our books are so good, our information is so good, our teams are so good that I think guys just one time seeing the golf course have a really good idea for it. Now, some of the nuances of maybe angles into certain pins or maybe certain breaks that maybe I'm more comfortable with because I've been out here, they might not have.

There's a lot of major courses that we go to that we've never been to, and after two, three days of prep, guys feel really comfortable on it.

I don't think guys are going to be too far behind the 8-ball, but I like to think I have a little bit of an advantage, at least with being comfortable hitting the ball at altitude and the ball not curving as much and things like that.

Xander Schauffele

I think guys are going to have charts, using their machines to try and get a feel for how far an 8-iron or anything you hit really high goes.

Scottie Scheffler

I actually played golf at altitude this summer. We were in Colorado. It wasn't competitive golf, but I do remember a tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour we played at some pretty good elevation — actually two events. One was near Denver, the other one was in Columbia. I've played at elevation before. It has its challenges but I have a system I like to go to and it's worked decently in the past, so hopefully it continues to work next week.

Billy Horschel

I had success and won the BMW in 2014 at Cherry Hills, so I think there is an advantage of playing at altitude. I spent 10 summers roughly in Aspen, which is 8,000 feet above sea level. I understand how the ball travels. All these guys are really good and adjust to new conditions. With technology and specifically the TrackMan and the (Foresight) GCQuad, there is a lesser advantage because guys can get their numbers dialed in a lot easier than 10 years ago. But it’s one thing to have the data and numbers and to know how far things go and another thing to feel comfortable and committed to how far the ball may go and that’s something I hope still plays in my advantage.

Patrick Cantlay

I think I played maybe one tournament in Colorado. I qualified for the 2012 U.S. Amateur here when I was, I think, a sophomore or junior in high school. It was a long time ago.

As far as the golf course being long, it doesn't play that long, just because the golf ball goes so much further at the elevation. I don't think we would approach it too much differently than any other week, other than you really do have to pay attention to trajectory and controlling your distance coming into greens because every club is going to go further than what it does normally, which means that the dispersion is further.

You have to pay attention to it, and I think the biggest thing is paying attention to trajectory. If you get the ball a little up in the air, it can go quite a bit further. In general, the landing areas aren't bigger even though the dispersion is going to be bigger.

There's just a little more emphasis on distance control and controlling your trajectory to make sure you play the right — it's roughly 10 percent, so you get it that 10 percent extra.

Jim \u0022Bones\u0022 Mackay

These guys don't know it but back in the day Castle Pines was the toughest walk on Tour. Even tougher than Kapalua. Guys are going to get a workout this year.

Patrick Cantlay agreed: There's going to be some tired caddies at the end of this week with the uphill and the downhill and the 8,100 yards. The ball is going farther, but we've got to walk all that way.

Keith Schneider, Castle Pines GM

The back nine is going to create a lot of drama (as told to Avid Golfer)

10 -- One of our hardest holes.

11 -- It's a great par 3; a great hole to observe.

12 -- A tight little par 4 they'll have some struggle with.

13 -- We'll see par 4 second shots downhill with the green having quite a bit of movement.

14 -- One of the prettiest par 5s in the world.

15 -- Another little par 4 with I think one of the best greens on the golf course. It's like three to four separate greens, and it's on a pond.

16 -- Probably our toughest par 3 on the golf course.

17 -- We've lengthened it and pros are going to be able to get there in two and that will have a lot of excitement.

18 -- We changed the bunkering and it's a tough home-hole now.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: The PGA Tour hasn't been to Castle Pines since 2006. Here's what players are saying about it playing 8,130 yards