Norman Has a Million Reasons to Like Format

No one won a million dollars on one hole, although someone could have. The Skins Game was not an artistic success, though it could have been. Greg Norman doesn’t need another million dollars, but he’ll take it anyway.

Not a whole lot was settled Sunday at Landmark Golf Club in Indio, but they finally passed out the money at the Skins Game and Norman got all of it.

Norman, the master marketer, the king of his golfing empire, is involved in selling clothes, headgear, wine, turf, and golf courses. At this stage of his career, he doesn’t spend too much time on the course, but he used his time wisely this weekend.

Norman picked up $800,000 with a routine par on the 18th hole Sunday, the result of an unusual 17-hole carryover, and won the other $200,000 with a birdie on a second playoff hole.

“I’ve never had to make a par for $800,000 before in my life,” Norman said.

So there was only one winner at the 19th Skins Game ... the first played under new rules that require players winning a hole to at least halve the next one to keep the money. “I still like the format,” Norman said. “I think it’s a great format.”

When you win every skin and every cent on the table, what’s not to like?

“I think that in this new format, that’s what you’re going to see more often,” Colin Montgomerie said. “One player winning all the money.”

Under the old rules where a player wins a hole and gets the money, the final accounting would have looked a lot different. Tiger Woods would have won $25,000 for one skin, Montgomerie would have won $75,000 for three skins, Jesper Parnevik would have won $605,000 for 11 skins and Norman $295,000 for three skins. Instead, Woods, Parnevik and Montgomerie didn’t make a cent.

Besides being shut out, Woods did not make a birdie Sunday. On a blustery day, Woods hit two balls in the water and was not happy about going away empty-handed.

“To walk away with no skins isn’t exactly a good feeling,” Woods said. “On the other hand, in this format, it’s very difficult to get skins.”

Whether watching four multimillionaires play for another million is riveting television won’t be known until the ratings come out. But until Parnevik knocked a curving, 21-foot putt into the hole to birdie the 16th, no one had won a hole in roughly 25 hours, since the fifth hole Saturday.

It would have been worth $730,000 to Parnevik, because it was a 15-hole carryover, but Norman kept it out of Parnevik’s pocket when he made a birdie at the par-four 17th. “Greg stole it from me, which hurt a little bit,” he said.

Norman’s birdie meant the 18th hole could be just what he predicted Saturday--a million-dollar hole. All Norman had to do to bag all the prize money for the two-day event was to win the hole outright.

Of course, that wasn’t going to happen, not the way this Skins Game was going. Norman was in a greenside bunker in two, but he left himself 25 feet short of the green when he blasted out. Montgomerie and Woods were non-factors after hitting their second shots in the water, which meant that Parnevik was the only threat to Norman.

But Parnevik needed to chip in from the fringe for a birdie and Norman needed only a two-putt par to win $800,000. Parnevik made par and it was up to Norman. His first putt was four feet short, but he steered the second one straight into the hole.

It was the most money Norman has won in a sanctioned event. His previous high was $450,000 when he won the 1991 Players Championship.

Parnevik said that when Norman made his putt to win the $800,000 at the 18th, the crowd seemed to lose a lot of interest. In this new format, there was still a consolation prize--$200,000--in a four-way playoff beginning at the 18th. Woods dropped out with a par.

Even though he didn’t win any money, Woods said he is still a fan of the format, although he said there could be some problems with it.

“It came to the last hole and I think that’s probably the tendency of what’s going to happen with the new format, if we continue to play it. It makes for a lot harder competition, no doubt about it.

“I think the downside to it is the viewership on Saturday. Generally, you’re always going to see somebody get a skin on the first day. Then again, it builds for a great crescendo on Sunday.”