Garcia Makes Skins Game Debut After Big Rookie Year

Completing an impressive rookie year as a pro, Spanish teenager Sergio Garcia joins Mark O’Meara, David Duval and Fred Couples in the Skins Game this weekend.

O’Meara, a close pal of Tiger Woods, also has befriended Garcia, who finished second to Woods at the PGA Championship and won the Irish Open in only his sixth start as a pro.

“I had played with Sergio before he turned professional and I saw the potential that he had,” said O’Meara, who won the Skins Game last year with $430,000 in earnings over the two-day tournament.

“I think the way Sergio has played this year has been tremendous. He is playing maybe even better than Tiger did his first nine, 10 months as a professional golfer.”

Couples, the all-time Skins king with $1.3 million and 41 skins, is a replacement for the late Payne Stewart.

In the Skins format, the foursome plays nine holes today and nine Sunday. The first six holes of the Skins Game, being played at the new Landmark Golf Club, will be worth $25,000 each, the next six $50,000 each, Nos. 13 through 17 $70,000 each, and No. 18 is a “super skin” worth $200,000. If there is a tie on a hole, the money is carried over.