Tiger at the Skins Game (1997)

The Event

The Skins Game is a $600,000 skins game that takes place at the Rancho La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, California. In golf, a skins game assigns a dollar value to each hole. Whoever wins the hole, wins the money. If two tie the hole, the entire field of four ties the hole, and the money is "carried over" to the next hole. Last year's winner was Fred Couples, who sank in birdie putt worth $240,000.

Holes 1-6 are $20,000 each, holes 7-12 are worth $30,000 and holes 13-17 are worth $40,000 apiece. The stakes for the 18th hole have been raised by $60,000, so the final hole will be worth at least $100,000.

The Players

The original list of players for this year's Skins Game:

                Age     PGA Victories/Earnings
Fred Couples    38              12/$8,885,487
Tom Lehman      38               4/$5,642,999
Mark O'Meara    40              14/$8,506,774
Tiger Woods     21               6/$2,857,427

Unfortunately, Fred Couples pulled out on the Wednesday before the event, due to his father's terminal illness. At the beginning of the telecast, Mike Tirico (ABC) announced that Couples' father had indeed passed away.

David Duval was selected as a last-minute replacement. The selection of David Duval confirms his stature as a tour presence. His three-wins-in-a-row to finish the official 1997 season made him an excellent choice. David is 26 years old, and is second on the PGA Money list this year with $1,885,308.

Out of the entire group, Tiger is the newest to the PGA Tour, but this weekend, he is the only one of the four to have played in a Skins Game.

Front Nine

Results of the first nine holes (Sports Ticker):

Hole   Prize     Result
  1    $20,000   Halved
  2    $40,000   Halved
  3    $60,000   Woods made 4-foot birdie putt
  4    $20,000   O'Meara made 6-foot birdie putt
  5    $20,000   Halved
  6    $40,000   Halved
  7    $70,000   Halved
  8    $100,000  Lehman made 22-foot birdie putt
  9    $30,000   Lehman made 10-foot birdie putt

David Duval was shut out on the first day of play.

Back Nine

Tom Lehman won an additional $170,000 today, winning the Skins game in record breaking style. He became the first "rookie" to win the Skins Game since 1991 (Payne Stewart was the rookie then). He also set the event's earnings record, breaking past the $290,000 earnings set by Ray Floyd in 1988.

Mark O'Meara did sink in skins worth $100,000 and $120,000 today.

Tiger Woods was shut out of skins today, but did win three on the front nine. David Duval did not win any skins over the 18 holes played.

Hole-by-hole results (Sports Ticker):

Hole   Prize     Result
 10    $30,000   Halved
 11    $60,000   Lehman made 8-foot birdie putt
 12    $30,000   Lehman made 4-foot birdie putt
 13    $40,000   Lehman made 9-foot birdie putt
 14    $40,000   Halved
 15    $80,000   Halved
 16    $120,000  O'Meara made 20-foot birdie putt
 17    $40,000   Lehman made 7-foot birdie putt
 18    $100,000  Halved
 18    $100,000  O'Meara made 5-foot birdie putt (Playoff)

Final standings:

Tom Lehman      10 skins     $300,000
Mark O'Meara     5 skins     $240,000
Tiger Woods      3 skins     $ 60,000
David Duval      0 skins     $      0

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Rick Umali rgu@world.std.com
Last Updated: Sun Nov 30 22:19:02 EST 1997