GOLF / MAL FLORENCE : Game Survived by Skin of Its Teeth

PALM DESERT —  Don Ohlmeyer recalled that he once had difficulty selling the idea of a Skins Game, featuring golf’s top stars, to a television network.

“When we first started with Skins (in 1983), no network would buy it,” he said.

He added that it was only through a personal relationship at NBC that the network was interested, if even mildly.

“NBC was the only network that would sell me the time,” Ohlmeyer said. “So they had no risk.

“My company went on the hook for all the risk. Six weeks before the first event, we were looking at losing $1 million. We finally worked out of a hole that first year. We made only six grand, which didn’t seem like a tremendous return on our investment.

“Then, the ratings were successful and last year Skins and Senior Skins were the second- and third-highest rated golf telecasts of the year.”

Ohlmeyer, a former television executive at ABC and NBC, who later formed his own company, has, in conjunction with Barry Frank, a senior corporate vice president at International Management Group, developed an enduring format.

The 10th annual Skins Game will conclude today at Bighorn Golf Club, matching Tom Kite, Fred Couples, Payne Stewart and Greg Norman, all celebrated players.

Ohlmeyer believed that a non-traditional golf format would appeal to the public.

“What I liked about it was that it was a format that allowed me to pair Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson the first year,” he said. “They were the four biggest names in the game at that time.

“And even though Arnold and Gary might not be competitive with Jack and Tom in a 72-hole tournament, under the Skins format anybody has a chance to make a birdie, or an eagle on any given hole.

“That, to me, was great about the format. It allowed people at different points of their career to be competitive with one another.

“Part of the pressure of medal play is that you hit one bad shot and it costs you the tournament, or you play a little conservatively. Skins is just tee it high and let it go. If you hit in the water, hopefully, somebody is going to tie the other guy.”

Ohlmeyer said the greatest shot he has ever seen in golf was made in the Skins by Lee Trevino a few years ago at the ninth hole at PGA West’s Stadium Course.

“He hit a five-wood out of a bunker about 190 yards to a green that was only about 15 feet deep where the pin was,” Ohlmeyer said.

“Trevino said afterward, ‘If I was playing in a tournament, I wouldn’t hit that shot.’ He had that old phrase, ‘Wood in the bunker; wood in the head.’

“Trevino told me that if he was playing in a tournament, he would play it safe, pitching out of the bunker to the front of the green and trying to get up and down.

“But in this format, who cares? You see some shots which fans wouldn’t ordinarily see.”

Asked to recall some memorable moments in Skins competition, Ohlmeyer said:

“The first year, after Gary Player made a putt for $170,000, he was hyperventilating so bad he couldn’t tee off on 18. He was beside himself.

“Also, in the first year, Arnold made a putt for $120,000 and danced around the green like he was 25 again.

“Then, in the second year, when Nicklaus made a putt for $240,000, he threw his club up in the air. The only other time he had ever thrown his putter in the air was when he won the British Open.”

Trevino made the only hole-in-one in Skins competition in 1987, when his six-iron shot from the 17th tee at PGA West took two bounces and went into the cup. That was worth $170,000.

Ohlmeyer said that the previous year, Trevino had made an eagle on the seventh hole and Peter Jacobsen had congratulated him.

“Trevino said, ‘Everyone is going to say that shot was lucky, but I’ve been practicing that shot for 40 years and it finally went in.’ ”

Ohlmeyer said that he has always looked at the Skins Game as an All-Star game.

“We always tried to put together groups that the public wants to see play,” he said.

There is a format for selecting the players. The defending champion, in this case Stewart, is automatically invited.

“Then, the PGA has put together a blue-ribbon panel of 160 people from sponsors to tournament directors to vote on two players,” Ohlmeyer said. “In theory, those players would represent who the public would like to see play. Those two this year are Kite and Couples. Norman was invited as our sponsor’s exemption.”

There are other tournaments now with non-traditional formats, such as the Shark Shootout at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.

“We call those events, ‘Son of Skins,’ ” Ohlmeyer said.

Golf Notes

The inaugural Pro Stakes championship scheduled Jan. 2-3 at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Dove Canyon course in South Orange County features John Daly, Peter Jacobsen, Craig Stadler and Fuzzy Zoeller. The $500,000 event combines conventional medal and challenge play. The players will alternate on naming what challenge is in play. The eight categories--each with an assigned point value--include longest drive, closest to the pin, first on the green, first in the hole, etc. Asked if this is gimmick golf, Jacobsen said: “I think this is more along the lines of what golf is played like at country clubs and public courses around the country.”

The City of Placentia Lawn & Garden Industry charity tournament is scheduled Thursday at Green River Golf Course. . . . The Billy Casper-designed Sun City Palm Springs course opened last Thursday. The course is classified as semi-private but is initially open to the public. . . . Tom Wilson has been named executive director of the Century Club of San Diego, the organizing body for the Buick Invitational of California. . . . Orel Hershiser, Mark McGwire, Robin Yount and George Brett are scheduled to play with amateur partners in the St. Francis Medical Center golf tournament Jan. 17 at the Sandpiper course in Santa Barbara.