GOLF SKINS GAME : The Prize Money Excites Even the Quiet Players

Gary Player wasn’t expected to win the big one. Neither was Arnold Palmer. No chance.

In the first Skins Game, played in 1983, the big winners were expected to be Jack Nicklaus and/or Tom Watson, who was then considered the best player in the world. Everybody knew that.

“So when Player sank that (four-foot) putt on the 17th hole for $150,000, he got so excited he started hyperventilating. He really did,” said Don Ohlmeyer, founder and co-producer of the Skins Game. “And then on the 18th hole, he was still so excited that he duck-hooked his tee shot.”

Player, who said at the time that the most he had gambled on any hole was $10, came away the winner that first year with $170,000. Palmer, who said he had played a hole for $25 once, finished second at $140,000, with the majority won on a 40-foot putt.

“When Arnold sank that putt on the 12th hole, he started running around the green like a 20-year-old kid,” Ohlmeyer said.

And so it goes with the Skins Game, the eighth of which begins today on the TPC Stadium course at PGA West with prize money of $450,000. Call it unpredictable.

“You can play good golf and not win a skin. It’s embarrassing,” said Curtis Strange, the defending champion who was shut out his first year, then came back last year and won 11 skins and $265,000. He will compete in the two-day, 18-hole event against Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Greg Norman.

The first six holes are worth $15,000 each, the second six $25,000 each and the final six $35,000. The prize money is carried over if a hole ends in a tie.

Faldo, considered one of the best players in the world, and Norman, the PGA money leader this season, are the newcomers. Nicklaus has played every year.

“About the only thing we don’t have this year is one player that might have a big mouth, like Lee (Trevino) or Fuzzy (Zoeller),” Strange said. “We don’t have a comedian. It will be quiet this year.”

Added Nicklaus: “It was quiet the first year.”

Then Zoeller came along in 1985 and Trevino in 1986.

“I remember one year Fuzzy giving Jack a kiss after he made a putt to carry the money over,” Ohlmeyer said.

Zoeller played in the Skins Game three years and is the record money winner at $695,000. Nicklaus is second at $580,000, followed by Trevino, who played the last four years, at $435,000.

Two of the four players are chosen by a PGA Tour panel and the third by a sponsor’s exemption. The defending champion has an automatic invitation. Trevino was not asked to return.

“Lee has been a delight for us,” Ohlmeyer said. “The hole in one he made on the 17th (in 1987) helped make the Skins Game what it is. And he is going to play in the Senior Skins Game this year. But adding some new faces helps keep this game unique.”

The TPC Stadium Course, a Pete Dye-designed layout, also lends to the event’s uniqueness. Long noted for its difficulty, the holes are surrounded by railroad ties, rocks, huge crater-type bunkers, water and rolling terrain. The course, which is also a site for the Bob Hope Classic, plays to 7,271 yards from the black tees and has a rating of 77.1. This is the fifth year for the event here.

“It’s a tough course for me,” Strange said. “But it’s match play, and it only takes a couple of holes to come home a winner. For skins, it’s more of full throttle. A go-all-out, let-her-go-type of format.”

Before Faldo played the course this week, he said he had heard it was crazy. Friday, he said it was great--for match play, that is.

“I think if you had a scorecard in your hand, you would tear every hair from your head,” he said.

Norman, whose style of game seems well suited to the course, appeared eager for the challenge.

“It’s a driver’s course,” he said.

The veteran of the group had this advice for the newcomers.

“Watch this year.” Nicklaus said to Faldo and Norman. “Then come back and play hard next year.”

No chance.

Skins Game Notes

ABC-TV will telecast the Skins Game live today at 12:30 p.m. and delayed Sunday at 3:30 p.m. . . . All four players have designated a portion of their winnings to charity: Jack Nicklaus to the Junior Golf program; Greg Norman to the Australian Junior Golf program; Nick Faldo to an orthopedic research program in London and Curtis Strange to the Virginia Boys Home. . . . Most money on one hole was won by Nicklaus in 1984, when he sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole worth $240,000.