Golf / Shav Glick : Skins Game Is Better Than a Course on Selling

A 4 1/2-hour commercial for Jack Nicklaus’ Bear Creek land development project southeast of Lake Elsinore will be televised Saturday and Sunday disguised as the Skins Game.

Nicklaus designed the Bear Creek course, where a nine-hole round will be played each day before NBC cameras among Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Fuzzy Zoeller. Jack Nicklaus Development of California is marketing and developing the land adjacent to the golf course.

Four and a half hours of air time on NBC is estimated to be worth between $600,000 and $750,000, which is nearly three times as much as the $240,000 Nicklaus won last year at Desert Highlands, another of his land development courses, in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The first two Skins Games were played at Desert Highlands, and this year’s PGA tour guide lists that as the site of the 1985 contest. However, nearly all the land was already sold at Desert Highlands, so last summer Nicklaus had the site switched to Bear Creek, where sales are not going so well.

“Really, I determined it (this year’s site) to a large degree of thanks from Lyle Anderson (owner of the Desert Highlands project),” Nicklaus said. “Lyle had an option for the third year of the Skins Game, but he felt that it had really served its purpose for Desert Highlands and that he really couldn’t get any more benefit out of it being there.

“He was trying to make up his mind and I said, ‘Well, Lyle, I’d sure like to have that over at Bear Creek.’ He said, ‘You’re a founding member of Bear Creek, what about having a little different flavor and move it over there for a year?’ So that’s what we did. We took it to (PGA Commissioner) Deane Beman and Don Ohlmeyer and they approved it and that’s how the move was made.”

Ohlmeyer is president of Ohlmeyer Communications Co., which owns the Skins Game TV package along with Trans World International. This year the PGA joined the group as a co-sponsor.

“We never had a thing to do with it before this year,” said a spokesman from Beman’s office. “When the site change was suggested, we had no reason to object as long as all the parties were in agreement.”

The PGA itself is in the business of selling property. It has scheduled five tournaments next year on its own Tournament Players Courses, and all are real estate developments. They are Sawgrass in Ponte Vedre, Fla.; Eagle Trace in Coral Springs, Fla.; The Woodlands in Houston; Las Colinas in Irvine, Tex., and the Players Club of Connecticut in Cromwell, Conn. Two other TPC courses, Plum Creek in Castle Rock, Colo., and Monte Carlo in Fort Pierce, Fla., are on on the Senior PGA schedule.

If there was any doubt that the Skins Game wasn’t a made-for-TV event, it was dashed when tournament officials announced that there would be no ticket sale either day. A tidy gallery, small enough for TV to handle yet big enough for wide-angle shots to show off the surrounding scenery, will be limited to Bear Creek founders, club members, property owners, sponsors and invited guests.

The Bear Creek Golf Club, which was projected to have 228 members at $20,000 each, has only 93 at this time.

“I’m hoping that through the exposure of the Skins Game, a lot more people throughout the country are going to see this community and are going to want to be part of Bear Creek,” said Garth Chambers, executive vice president of Nicklaus’ development company.

Nicklaus is playing because he is the defending champion. Palmer was selected by Ohlmeyer, and Watson and Zoeller were chosen by a PGA committee.

In the Skins Game, $450,000 will be at stake, up $90,000 from last year. The winner of each of the first six holes will receive $15,000, the next six holes $25,000, and the final six $35,000. If no one wins a hole outright, the money is carried over to the next hole, and so on until someone wins.

Last year there were nine carry-over holes on the final day before Nicklaus sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole worth $240,000.

“Basically, every hole in the Skins Game is a tournament in itself,” Nicklaus said. “We’re packing 18 sudden-death holes into a little over four hours of television.”

The popularity of the unique event is borne out in TV ratings, where only the Masters had a higher rating for 1985 tournaments. The Skins Game had a 6.3 to 5.5 for the PGA, 5.98 for the U.S. Open and 4.1 for the British Open. The Masters had a 7.7.

The two nine-hole matches will be tape-delayed locally to be shown on Channel 4 Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m.

Golf Notes

What do Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus, Craig Stadler, Peter Jacobsen, Greg Norman, Lee Trevino, Fred Couples, Andy Bean, Larry Nelson, Bruce Lietzke, Gil Morgan and Ben Crenshaw have in common? All are golf tournament winners, yes, but not one of them won a tour event this year. . . . Riverside’s Don Pooley won the Vardon Trophy for the year’s low scoring average of 70.36 strokes without winning a tournament. It has happened three other times, in 1973 by Raymond Floyd, 1958 by Bob Rosburg and 1954 by Dutch Harrison. . . . Stadler set a tour record for most money won in a season without a victory: $297,926.

Pat Rielly, head professional at Annandale, was reelected treasurer of the PGA for another year, and Tom Addis of Singing Hills was selected to the board of directors at the PGA meeting in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. . . . Tom Lasorda will play host to a celebrity charity tournament Dec. 2, at Industry Hills. Beneficiaries will be Child Help and Four Acres, both dedicated to battered children; the Professional Baseball Players Assn. and the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame. . . . Mona Christian defeated Hideko Nishi for the President’s Cup at Industry Hills.

Amateurs with a handicap of two or less can attempt to qualify for the Los Angeles Open Dec. 2 at Hillcrest CC and for the Shearson Lehman Brothers Andy Williams Open--can you believe that name?--Dec. 14, at South Torrey Pines. The two $450,000 tournaments are Feb. 5-9 at Torrey Pines for the SLBAWO and Feb. 16-23 for the L.A. Open. . . . Actors Claude Akins and Bob Colbert, current Hollywood Hackers gross and net champions, will defend their titles Dec. 7-8 at Rancho Mirage CC. . . . The Golden State Tour will play Monday at Mission Viejo. . . . Del Safari CC will hold its 15th annual pro-member-guest invitational tournament next Saturday and Sunday. . . . Retired Judge Michael Yelovich shot a 76 at Woodland Hills to win the VNE Invitational, a charity event for International Guiding Eyes for the blind. Low net was Andrew Murray with a 63. The biggest prize went to Al Hart for taking the most putts, 43.

Big Bill O’Connor completed a sweep of Riviera CC championships by winning his fourth club title after earlier having won the Invitational, Match Play Partners and Medal Play Partners crowns. . . . Former LPGA pro Kellii Rinker, who learned her golf at Los Coyotes CC, is taking a leave from the women’s tour to sell real estate for the Landmark Co. in Rancho Mirage. . . . Chris Carlson and Tracy Lehman, both of Palm Desert, received top honors in the Desert Jr. Golf Assn. . . . Dan Murray, owner-builder of the Sierra La Verne course, won the 19th annual Palm Springs Senior championship with a 141 for 36 holes at Palm Springs Municipal. Jerry Gloston of Santa Maria won the 50-54 age flight by two shots over former California Angel outfielder Albie Pearson and Henry Richman.

The sixth annual Matador Mulligan tournament, a fund-raiser for the Cal State Northridge athletic department, will be played Monday at Woodland Hills. . . . The Guild for Cystic Fibrosis is holding a charity tournament Dec. 2, at El Caballero CC. . . . The 19th annual California Women’s Amateur is set for Dec. 3-8 at Pebble Beach, with a new champion to be crowned. Last year’s winner, Sue Tonkin of Australia, has turned professional.