Skins Game Leaves PGA West for Palm Desert’s Bighorn Club

The Skins Game, which has been played at PGA West in La Quinta the last six years, will move to Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert this year, officials are expected to announce today.

Ohlmeyer Communications, which produces the made-for-television event, has signed a three-year contract to hold the event at the course, which opened last year.

Bighorn is shorter than the TPC Stadium Course at PGA West, 6,848 yards to the TPC’s 7,271, but the difficulties are similar: bunkers, mounds and hills that result in blind shots, a trademark of a stadium course.

The decision to move the event to Bighorn was a blow to Orange County’s Dove Canyon Country Club in Trabuco Canyon, which was seriously considered.

The Skins Game involves four golfers playing 18 holes over two days, with each hole worth thousands of dollars. This year’s dates are Nov. 28-29, with a total purse of $540,000.

Bighorn will be the fourth home of the event, which began in 1983 at Desert Highlands in Scottsdale, Ariz., then moved to Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, Calif., for two years before landing at PGA West.