NEWS

LG Skins Game: Final-Day Notebook
 
Nov. 25, 2007
Print this page
By Dave Senko
PGA TOUR Staff

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Stephen Ames earned back-to-back LG SKINS GAME Championships Sunday as he walked off with $650,000 and eight skins on the 18th hole to claim the championship. Ames had nine skins and $675,000 for the two days to top Mr. Skins, Fred Couples, who won the other nine skins and $325,000. First-year players Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich were blanked.

AMES AND THE EIGHT SKINS ON 18: Stephen Ames won eight skins on the final hole. It is the second-largest money total on one hole. Greg Norman had 18 in 2001 with the validation format. Jack Nicklaus won nine skins in 1984 and Couples matched the late Payne Stewart, who had eight in 1991.

THE REPEATER: Only one player in the 25-year history of the event has won back-to-back-to-back, and that was the late Payne Stewart who won in 1991-1992-1993. Ames will be bidding for that trick in 2008. Other players to repeat as champions are Fred Couples, who did it twice (1995-96 and 2003-04), Fuzzy Zoeller (1985-86) and Curtis Strange (1989-90). Like Ames, Stewart and Zoeller were winners in their first two skins game appearances.

Fred Couples
Fred Couples didn't win, but became the first player to total $4 million in LG Skins Game earnings. (Carlson/AP)

THE $4 MILLION DOLLAR MAN: Fred Couples started the morning off Sunday by sinking a five-footer for birdie and winning $250,000 and six skins. He thus became the first $4 million man in LG SKINS GAME history. With his two-day total of $325,000, he moved his career total to $4,225,000.

MOST MONEY FOR ONE HOLE IN REGULAR FORMAT: The $650,000 on the final hole is the most money for one hole in the regular format. The previous most was $550,000 won by Fred Funk on the 18th hole in 2005. The all-time most money for one hole is $800,000 by Greg Norman in 2001. The game was played with the validation format.

AMES PASSES THE MILLION MARK: With his earnings of $675,000, Stephen Ames surpassed the million-dollar mark in earnings and his two-year total moves him to $1,265,000 (third all time in event history). He becomes only the fourth player to pass that mark (Couples $4,225,000, Mark O'Meara $1,320,000 and Greg Norman $1,200,000). Ames' 17 skins are tied for ninth on the all-time list, led by Couples at 95. The $650,000 Ames won on Sunday ranks third on the all-time list behind Norman winning the $1 million in the validation format in 2001 and Fred Funk taking home $700,000 in 2005.

MORE AMES: No player has earned as much money in their first two skins games than Ames with $1,265,000. Ames' eight skins on one hole is third most in history, tying Payne Stewart (1991) and Fred Couples (2004). Norman won 17 skins in 2001 and Jack Nicklaus won nine skins in 1984.

AMES AND THE KITCHEN: Stephen Ames was the closest to the pin on the par-3, 181-yard 16th hole. He got within seven feet of the pin, thus earning the LG SKINS bonus of a new LG kitchen, including a French-door refrigerator, dishwasher, range and microwave oven.

AND IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH: Stephen Ames' caddie earned a top-of-the-line LG "Opus" 42-inch LCD HDTV.

CHARITY WINS AGAIN: Each player donated 20 percent of his earnings to his favorite charity. Fred Couples played for the California Wildfires Victims; Stephen Ames played for the Stephen Ames Foundation; Zach Johnson played for Team Fox for Parkinson's Research and Brett Wetterich played for the Big Oak Ranch.

MORE COUPLES: The six skins earned by Fred Couples on the 10th hole on Sunday was the third-highest single day total for Couples in his 14 appearances. His best of eight came in 2004 on the 10th hole for $300,000. He has won seven three previous times -- Sunday 1995, Sunday 1996 and Sunday 2003.

Couples won nine skins for the second consecutive year and did not win the championship. He has done that three times in his 14-year skins game career.

UPDATING COUPLES CAREER RECORDS: Couples, a five-time winner in the LG SKINS GAME, has increased his career records in earnings to $4,225,000, his appearances to 14, his leading skins total of 95 skins, his record of most skins won on Sunday career to 64; his Saturday leading career total to 31; his most money won career on Saturday at $795,000; and his most money won on Sunday career to move his total to $3,430,000. He became the career leader in eagles at three.

THE ROOKIES GO HOME EMPTY: The two rookies, Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich, became the 23rd and 24th players to be blanked. The previous two skins games were won by rookies -- Ames last year and Fred Funk in 2005. Johnson and Wetterich are the 30th and 31st players to have ever played in the skins game.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS: Keeping in mind the participants play for $300,000 on Saturday and $700,000 on Sunday, history shows that players with no skins on the first day have won the event as many times as the first-day leaders. Stephen Ames was the fourth player to earn the title after being second after the first day of play this year.