Skins Game To Feature Four Players!
Twenty five years ago it was Nicklaus, Palmer, Watson and Player. And now...
G SKINS GAME LEGEND FRED COUPLES, DEFENDING CHAMPION STEPHEN AMES, MASTERS CHAMPION ZACH JOHNSON, LONG-HITTING BRETT WETTERICH FORM FIELD FOR 2007 LG SKINS GAME
25th anniversary of the LG SKINS GAME to be played on new Celebrity Course at Indian Wells Golf Resort
And what celebrities they have added alongside the one celebrity in the group, Fred Couples.
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (August 14, 2007) — LG SKINS GAME defending champion Stephen Ames, SKINS GAME legend Fred Couples, Masters champion Zach Johnson and long-hitting Brett Wetterich will form the field for the Silver Anniversary LG SKINS GAME to be played Thanksgiving weekend at the spectacular new Celebrity Course at Indian Wells Golf Resort.
The announcement was made jointly by ESPN Regional Television (ERT), Trans World International (TWI), LG Electronics USA, Inc. and the City of Indian Wells.
The $1 million 2007 LG SKINS GAME will be produced by ESPN and broadcast on ABC in its customary Thanksgiving home: Saturday, Nov. 24 and Sunday, Nov. 25. Nine holes will be aired Saturday from 1 p.m.-3:30 p.m. and on Sunday from 3:30 p.m.-6 p.m. ET (check\ local listings). This is the 17th year ABC has served as the U.S. broadcast home to the SKINS GAME.
“You have one of the hottest up-and-coming golfers in Zach Johnson, who everyone saw hold off Tiger Woods in the Masters, a member of last year’s Ryder Cup, Brett Wetterich, whose powerful long drives are fun to watch, our defending champion Stephen Ames and the most successful player in SKINS GAME history – Fred Couples,” said Barry Frank, vice chairman of IMG Media. “This field has something to offer both the devoted golf fan and the casual golf fan, and the vistas and challenges of the Celebrity Course simply add to the allure of our 25th LG SKINS GAME.”
Title Sponsor LG Electronics applauded the field for the 2007 LG SKINS GAME. “As LG Electronics proudly returns as sponsor of one of professional golf’s best-loved televised events, we are enthusiastic about this diverse and talented group of players that promises to deliver an exciting Thanksgiving weekend of world-class golf,” said Michael Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics North American Headquarters.
“Over the past 25 years, the LG SKINS GAME has become a Thanksgiving weekend institution,” said Tony Renaud, vice president of new business for ESPN. “We are thrilled to feature such an accomplished, yet diverse field that will not only celebrate the past 25 years, but add to the rich history of this very special golf event that families and golf fans have enjoyed.”
Wait, the pile-on isn't finished...
“Our exceptional resort city is delighted to play host to the LG SKINS GAME, and we’re very excited to showcase this famed event’s silver anniversary on our new Celebrity Course,” said City of Indian Wells Mayor Rob Bernheimer. “This promises to be a great year for the LG SKINS GAME and one that fans will not want to miss.”For sure. Oh you said will NOT want to miss. My bad.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 10:55 AM
Reader Comments (16)
Were the legends in their prime at the time, or were they more in the autumn of their careers and thus more likely to play in an exhibition like this? Palmer certainly was finished as a competitive regular tour player by then.
How likely would it be to get, say, Woods, Mickelson, Singh, and Furyk in a Skins Game? None, I suspect.
Yet if you get up at 4 AM, you have a chance of seeing "Big Three Golf," with Palmer, Player, and Nicklaus, in their primes, duking it out.
Times have changed.
Only Watson could be considered still close to his prime in that first Skins game, won by Player. Player and Nicklaus were in the autumn of their careers at the time.
That first Skins was somewhere around 1983, off the top of my head.
I really don't know why they continue the thing.
The GSoG hasn't been played on great courses, either, so it's not that. (Although Mid Ocean will be fun to watch this year.)
I don't watch either of those things, but the GSoG obviously has the major champs of that year.
Who the hell wants to spend part of a lovely, fall weekend watching Couples, Wetterich, Ames, and Zack yick-yacking around some lousy golf course?
How in hell did Wetterich get invited? The charisma quotient of this bunch, absent Couples, is 0.0001. (and Couples wore out long ago for me, too)
Maybe the charm of the original Skins was that at the time, you didn't have many chances to see those superstars playing on TV, especially not an event with them as the only competitors, on for the entire broadcast.
All the stars today are probably over-exposed, so seeing a golf match between Tiger and the other major winners isn't really special and unique, and that Skins Game cast is even worse...
For a while when it started it seemed like big money...now it's peanuts...and there wasn't much if any golf on TV after Labor Day, and the success of the Skins led to more fall and "fourth quarter'' golf so that it has become a year-round sport, at least in terms of TV availability.
I wonder with the FedEX now if the tour isn't rethinking its position and believing some time off/away wouldn't be all bad...Of course, the reason Skins and all these other events remain, on TV, is that they are profitable for the networks, somehow, they rake in more than they cost to produce.
The big problem was that the PGA of America could not get all four major champions to participate. The GSofG didn't happen in 1987, then came back 1988-1990 at Kemper Lakes.
The 1990 editon was unforgettable for me because Curtis Strange claimed "stomach problems" at the last minute and the PGA called on Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka (a 7 hdcp) to fill in for Strange. I remember sitting in the office at KL the morning of the event as they were scrambling a find a suitable substitute for the two-time U.S. Open winner with a bellyache.
The phone rang. It was Nolan Henke, offering to fill in for Strange. He received a polite "No thank you." Fiften minutes later the phone rang again. This time it was Fulton Allem making the same offer and getting the same polite refusal.
Finally, Jim Kemper called Ditka, one of his regulars; problem solved. The crowds averaged maybe 4,000 to 5,000 each of those years, if I recall. The big running story was Norman taking the shortcut across the lake and driving the green on the horseshoe-shaped par-4 18th, requiring a carry of 300 yards. That was a monumental shot in those days.
Mr. Kemper was not pleased that after he almost single-handedly resusitated the event for the PGA, they suddenly moved it to Hawaii. He found out when it was announced to the media.
4p
FWIW, Strange did have some health issues that started either shortly before or after that 1990 National Open at Medinah, where he was trying to three-peat. His game really deteriorated after that year.
Must of been something having Ditka filling out that foursome.
Strange's game declined because he tried to make some swing changes. "I mistakenly thought I needed to have a swing that looked like the swing of a two-time U.S. Open champion," he told me a couple of years later.
Once he did that and lost his original swing he hopped from instructor to instructor looking for answers. He even saw Rick Smith, who had just got started with Rocco Mediate and Lee Janzen -- but only under the condition that Smith not reveal it. Shoot, we used to joke the "short list" would be the instructors he hadn't visited.
He's not the only one to go through this type of thing, either -- and there are a few more that screwed up their swings switching equipment contracts, too.
4p
The reason the top players showed up for these things and series like Grand Slam Golf was simple: $$$$$. Don't forget, Tiger wins as much in a single year as Nicklaus, Palmer, and Player earned in their entire playing careers.