Palmer: Pride Drives Skins Game Golfers : ‘We’re All Scared to Death of Not Winning a Skin,’ Arnie Says

LA QUINTA, Calif. —  Money? Prestige?

Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Fuzzy Zoeller would already seem to have enough of both.

The Skins Game, golf’s made for TV mini-series, is more a matter of pride.

Who wants to be embarrassed? Who wants to come away empty?

“We’re all scared to death of not winning a skin,” Palmer said Saturday following the first nine holes on the PGA West Stadium course.

“We’re all out there trying to win that first skin, then win as many as we can.”

Struggling to convince himself that he can still compete at this level and heartened by his familiar fan support, Palmer avoided the specter of a shutout when he rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt on the eighth hole to win a skin valued at $25,000, which left him third on Saturday’s money list.

Zoeller, who won $255,000 in last year’s Skins Game and $150,000 on one 15-foot putt, made a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 4 to win $60,000, a result of carry-overs on the first three holes.

Trevino, who started playing skins games with Coke bottles when he was an adolescent but is playing in this one for the first time, holed a 68-yard wedge shot for a spectacular eagle on No. 7 to win a $55,000 skin, the most money he has ever made on one shot.

With six holes halved Saturday, only Nicklaus will still be looking for his first skin when they play the final nine holes this morning, with NBC televising it on a delayed basis at 4 p.m. A total of $310,000 will be at stake today, with No. 10, the first hole, worth $50,000, including a $25,000 carry-over from No. 9.

The first six holes of this fourth renewal were each worth $15,000. The next six are worth $25,000, and the final six $35,000. If two players tie on a hole, all tie. The money is carried over.

Nicklaus, who has played in each of the Skins Games, is the series’ leading money winner with $295,000. There was a certain irony to his Saturday shutout since it was generally conceded that he played the steadiest nine holes on a water- and sand-dotted course already considered the nation’s toughest.

Though he picked up on No. 7, when Trevino got his eagle, Nicklaus otherwise had five pars, two birdies and a bogey. Only Zoeller had as many as two birdies.

“I think Jack probably putted and hit the ball better than any of us but didn’t win a skin,” Trevino said. “That’s the nature of this game.”

Said Nicklaus: “All you can do is play your best and hope you get the opportunity to win a skin. The couple birdies I made . . . well, Lee was already virtually in the hole (with one) on three, and Fuzzy made one on five.”

A display of good-natured camaraderie and needling marked the play of this Hall of Fame foursome on a picturesque afternoon on which a crowd estimated at 9,500 challenged the viewing concept of Pete Dye’s Stadium Course.

The tee placements for this event have left the length at 7,127 yards compared to a potential of 7,271. Why so much shorter? Trevino cited the constraints of TV time and the course’s demanding nature at any length.

“It’s a television special,” he said, “and those people want to see some birdies. If you set it up from the back tees and the wind blows, we might be out there shooting in the 80s. I mean, we can do that as it is.”

Trevino and Nicklaus delivered Saturday’s first birdies on No. 3 after Palmer blew a chance to win the first skin by missing a six-foot birdie putt on No. 2.

Trevino applied the pressure the 451-yard No. 3 when he smoked a 182-yard 5-iron to within inches of the pin and a certain birdie.

Each of the other three had birdie putts of varying lengths, and Zoeller was the first to miss.

“Let’s go, team,” Zoeller pleaded to Palmer and Nicklaus, hoping one would make it, tying Trevino and forcing a third straight carry over.

Nicklaus responded from the fringe, rolling in a difficult putt of 17 feet. “Wait,” the smiling Zoeller said, gleefully waving off Nicklaus and retrieving the ball for him.

Thus, No. 4, a 174-yard par-3 known as the sand pit, was worth the $60,000 that Zoeller won after puting a 6-iron to within 12 feet of the pin. His valuable putt came after Nicklaus had made a par putt of about 14 feet. Zoeller said the Nicklaus’ putt meant he could be more aggressive because the hole had already been halved, Trevino getting a 3 before Nicklaus.

“I asked Jack why he didn’t miss it and put a little more pressure on Fuzzy,” Trevino said with a smile later, “and he said, ‘I’m putting so well that I couldn’t have missed it if I tried.’ ”

Nicklaus supplied another example of his touch on the next hole, a 522-yard 5-par, when he missed a 45-foot eagle putt by inches and then watched Zoeller sink a seven-foot birdie putt to force a carry-over. Another on No. 6 put Trevino in position to win his $55,000 with that stunning wedge shot on No. 7, the first hole worth $25,000.

“Been practicing that for 47 years,” he said, a 46-year-old until Monday.

Actually, Trevino said he probably never made more than three or four fairway wedge shots a year when he played the tour regularly. He is a self-described bump-and-run-type player trying to cope with a course that favors what he calls an aerial game. He twice drove into traps Saturday and found the water with a third tee shot.

He had to carry a corner of water with his wedge shot--it’s a new wedge that he just recently had sand blasted--but he said, “I had a good lie and liked it from the time I hit it. It had the flag all the way. If Fuzzy (who then ran a similar wedge past the pin) had made his after what they did to me on 3 (when Nicklaus made the birdie putt with Trevino needing only inches for one of his own), I’d have jumped in the lake, to hell with it.”

The 58-year-old Palmer then won the final skin when he matched the long-hitting Zoeller off the tee on No. 8, a 552-yard 5-par, and ultimately ran in his birdie putt. He celebrated eventually with an extra half-hour on the practice tee, explaining that after playing primarily the Seniors Tour “this is a different ballgame” and that he has to re-tune his game and restore his confidence.

His loyal army helped him emotionally, he said, after he missed the birdie putt on No. 2.

“I’ve been putting terribly and that’s what bothered me about playing here because you have to be able to putt to win skins,” he said. “I was pretty dejected when I walked to the next tee but the crowd fired me up the way they were yelling for me. I still feed on them, still sense their emotion. I still think I can do anything I’ve ever done when they start to yell.”

Six holes later, he looked like the General of yore.