Senior Skins Game : Palmer, Player Win Some Serious Money on the First 9 Holes

Billy Casper and Chi Chi Rodriguez were relaxed, and they seemed to be having all the fun, but it was the serious fellows who won the money.

Arnold Palmer won $70,000 and Gary Player $50,000 Saturday on the first 9 holes of the Senior Skins Game on the Mountain Course at La Quinta Hotel Golf Club.

The comedians won a few laughs, but no money. Last year in this event, Rodriguez won $300,000. This is Casper’s first skins game.

Today, the foursome will tee off at 8:30 a.m. on the back nine, and $240,000 will be doled out.

There will be no carryover today, because Palmer sank a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-4 ninth to win $60,000. He also won $10,000 on the 360-yard first hole, when he had the only par.

Player, who won $40,000 last year, sank a 35-foot putt for a birdie on the 404-yard sixth to win the only other skin. There had been ties on four consecutive holes before Player won, so it was worth $50,000. He showed emotion for the first time during the round after the long putt dropped.

On the seventh, a 500-yard par 5, a photographer clicked her camera as Player was about to hit a chip shot from just off the green, above the hole.

“Make all the noise you want, lady. This is only for $20,000,” said the relaxed Player, whose chip just missed going in for a birdie that would have won the hole.

Rodriguez started the high jinks when he came to the first tee and scattered dollar bills, instead of grass, to test the wind. Casper, who was, by his own admission, a grump when he was on the regular PGA Tour, kept up a steady stream of one-liners that seemed to surprise the gallery of 3,000 or 4,000.

Palmer was quiet on the first tee, seldom entering into the bantering. Player also seemed dead serious. Although all four players said that pressure was not a part of the skins competition and that money was not of prime concern, the facts belied the comments.

Not one of the quartet was able to drive into the fairway on No. 1, not even Palmer, who used an iron. Except for an occasional one-liner from Rodriguez, the laughs and jokes became more scarce with each halved hole after Palmer saved par on No. 1 after nobody was on in regulation.

“I thought that, except for the first hole, everyone played rather well,” Palmer said. “There was some pretty good golf out there. I was very glad to make that last putt.

“I’ve played in quite a few of these things, and I find that after you win your first skin, you tend to let down. I was conscious of it, but I couldn’t do anything about it until the last hole of the day.”

Casper probably had more of an excuse for not playing well than Rodriguez. Rodriguez has been playing at La Quinta almost daily for two weeks, but Casper never was on the course until the pro-am Friday. He left Honolulu Thursday night and arrived here from Los Angeles Friday an hour before tee-off time. He said he had two hours’ sleep on the plane and was tired Saturday.

Asked how many times he played the course, Rodriguez said: “I don’t have any idea. I didn’t have to pay green fees.”

Rodriguez was assured of winning something, at least. Palmer promised to buy him a pair of slacks after Palmer caused Rodriguez to spill coffee all over himself.

“I don’t know whether you can afford them,” Rodriguez said. “These are Jack Nicklaus pants. They’re expensive.”