Arnie Picks Up His Golf Ball, but Not a Single Skin

LA QUINTA —  Arnold Palmer wound up the same way Tip O’Neill did at PGA West, but the golfing millionaire from Pennsylvania didn’t enjoy it as much as the politician from Massachusetts.

The 16th hole at the PGA West’s Stadium course is a 571-yard par 5 that is called the San Andreas Fault. It’s distinctive feature is a 19-foot cliff from an elevated green down to a sandy bunker.

When O’Neill, the former Speaker of the House, played it during the Bob Hope Classic last February, he put his fourth--and fifth, and sixth--shot into the bunker. He tried valiantly to blast out, but each time the ball hit the side of the cliff and rolled tantalizingly back to O’Neill’s feet.

Finally, his answer was to pick up the ball and fling it up and on to the green, smiling all the time.

The crowd loved it.

Palmer put his third shot in the bunker Sunday during the final nine holes of the fifth annual Skins Game. While his three playing partners, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus and Fuzzy Zoeller were on the green, putting for birdies, Palmer was down, out of sight from most of the gallery, almost exactly where O’Neill had stood seven months before.

Palmer’s attempt to hit his ball out of the chasm was no more successful than O’Neill’s, but after one swing, Palmer picked up his ball and climbed the incline to the green.

The crowd cheered at the first sight of his gray-thatched head as lustily as if he had holed out. The ball was in his pocket.

It was a grim-faced Palmer who wearily watched as Nicklaus and Zoeller made matching birdies to turn the 17th hole into a $175,000 bonanza for Trevino.

The day had turned sour for the 58-year-old golfing legend.

He had, in the golfer’s parlance, been skunked.

He was about to finish playing 18 holes with $450,000 at stake and not make a penny. It wasn’t the money, it was the principle of the thing.

It was the second time in three years that Palmer had been shut out.

Palmer’s chances at winning a skin Sunday and sending the latter day remnants of Arnie’s Army into ecstasy came early on a cool desert morning.

Sunday’s nine-hole match started on the tenth hole.

No. 11 is 618 yards, the longest hole on the course. Palmer, hitting last in the all-star foursome, out-drove even the power-hitting Zoeller. Cheers of “Arnie, Arnie, go Arnie,” echoed off the Santa Rosa Mountains.

Palmer responded with a walloping 3-wood that left him just short of the green, 40 yards from the hole. After the others had hit their third shots, the closest was Zoeller, 20 yards short of the cup.

But Palmer hit a weak chip, leaving himself 15 feet from a birdie, but still seemingly in command.

Zoeller changed things around by ramming home his 20-foot putt and giving Palmer a wink. Now Arnie, who had looked like a winner, had to make his quick- breaking putt just to halve the hole.

He made it. It was the last fine moment for the old warrior.

Twice later he had opportunities, once to tie and once to win, but his putter failed him.

On No. 12, with $50,000 at stake, Trevino putted first and sank a 20-footer for a birdie. Palmer had one for 13 feet to cover it, but it lipped out.

Trevino, starting a roll, pocketed the $50,000. Palmer’s grin became grim.

His next chance came at No. 15 after the others had missed birdie attempts. Palmer was about 25 feet away, knowing that if he made the putt no one could roll one in on top of his.

“Poor Arnie,” said TV announcer Vince Scully. “It would really make everyone happy (if he won a skin).”

It would have, but instead it turned out embarrassing.

Palmer’s putt never headed for the hole. It was short about five feet and off line just as far.

When Trevino hit his 6-iron for a hole in one on No. 17 to pick up five skins and $175,000, the other three were left with the impossible task of trying to match it.

Nicklaus and Zoeller both hit fine shots to the island green, but Palmer’s effort caromed off the rocks into the water.

“I was certainly startled (to see the hole in one) and I think Lee was, too,” Palmer said later. “Under the circumstances, it was the most astounding hole in one I have ever seen.

“I’m sure no one else ever hit a hole in one with so much at stake.”

Palmer had bogeyed again.

As Trevino pointed out, Don Pooley had made a $1 million hole in one at Palmer’s own course, Bay Hill, in Orlando, Fla.

“Oh, yeah, it was the Hertz Bay Hill Classic, wasn’t it?” Palmer said, getting in his plug for his tournament sponsor. “But I didn’t see that one.”

Pooley’s shot was $500,000 for the tournament charity and $500,000 for Pooley.

Was this Palmer’s last Skins Game? He wasn’t saying.

“It’s a fun format and I enjoy it. It can be agonizing at times, but I think I can play a little better than I did today.”

The format will be the same in the Seniors Skins Game when Palmer faces Chi Chi Rodriguez, Gary Player and Sam Snead in Hawaii in January.

Palmer should be more at home in that one.