Couples makes senior debut in a Skins game
Fred Couples turned 50 in October, and he could not have picked a better Champions Tour event to make his debut.
The “King of the Skins” will be playing in the Champions Skins Game in Hawaii on Jan. 16-17, joining a Hall of Fame cast that includes Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Gary Player, Ben Crenshaw and Nick Price.
While the original Skins Game held over Thanksgiving weekend has been canceled, the 50-and-older version lives on in paradise at Royal Kaanapali. The total purse is $770,000, and it features two-man teams playing alternate shot.
Couples turned the Skins Game into an annuity. He played 14 times and earned $4.183 million. In 585 official events on the PGA Tour, he made $21.319 million.
“I could not think of a better way for me, personally, to start on the Champions Tour than to play in this format and have the chance to hang out with this group of players,” said Couples, who will be paired with Nick Price.
Fuzzy Zoeller and Ben Crenshaw will try to become the first team to repeat in the Champions Skins Game, and Zoeller will be going for his third straight title; he played with Peter Jacobsen in 2007.
Nicklaus and Watson will be teammates again, and the fourth team is Gary Player and Loren Roberts.
AWOL AT THE LPGA: Ever since the “Tour Championship” was introduced into golf’s vernacular in 1991, the very name of the tournament suggests an elite field.
That wasn’t the case last week on the LPGA Tour.
For starters, organizers decided to expand the season finale to 120 players. If not for rain that forced a 54-hole tournament, there would have been a cut to 70 players after the second round, and to the top 30 after the third round. By turning it into a full field, the LPGA Tour at least was giving some players an additional start.
However, it was difficult to ignore the number of players who didn’t show up — not only players who were among the top 120, but 16 alternates. The LPGA Tour does not disclose why a player withdraws, so it’s unclear how many were due to injury or travel plans.
Even so, the tour had to go down to No. 156 on its money list to fill the field in Houston.
That would be Jeehae Lee, a rookie who graduated from Yale three years ago. In the 16 tournaments Lee had played going into the LPGA Tour Championship, she made only one cut—a tie for 57th in Phoenix. Lee broke 70 only once all year and had made $3,989.
She recorded her best finish in Houston—a tie for 55th—and earned $4,197.
CAREER MONEY: As many as seven players could be taking an exemption from the career money list to keep their PGA Tour cards.
Brad Faxon (No. 37) and Corey Pavin (No. 48) already have notified the tour they will take a one-time exemption for being among the top 50 in career earnings.
The tour is waiting to hear from two players who already have used a one-time exemption from the top 25 in career money and still have the top 50 option—50-year-old Tom Lehman (No. 21) and Chris DiMarco (No. 22).
Stuart Appleby (No. 15) expects to decide in the next few weeks whether to use his first career-money exemption or try to get by on sponsor exemptions and his conditional status.
Jesper Parnevik is No. 46 in career money and entered in the final stage of Q-school. He likely will use his exemption if he fails to make it through Q-school or is ranked low coming out of Q-school. Tim Herron (No. 42) also is in the final stage of Q-school and could lean on his exemption if he doesn’t make it.
THE TIGER CHART: Tiger Woods had not been to Australia in 11 years, giving him the occasion to set the record straight on that chart of Jack Nicklaus he had taped up in his bedroom as a kid.
“People have kind of exaggerated the record list,” Woods said.
He said it contained only four or five items and was more of a timeline— when Nicklaus took up golf, when he first broke 40, when he won his first junior event, his first U.S. Amateur and when he turned pro.
“It was just a benchmark for me growing up that here’s the greatest player of all time and this is what he did when he was 13, 17, 18,” Woods said. “As a junior, you’re always trying to compare yourself to, ‘When did he do it?’ And hopefully, I can do something a little bit better and maybe that might springboard myself into having a good career.
“It has turned out OK.”
NATIONWIDE AND Q-SCHOOL: For those heading to Q-school next week: Consider what the future might hold.
Eight players who were in Q-school a year ago finished among the top 125 to keep their PGA Tour card, including PGA champion Y.E. Yang and Jason Dufner, the only two from that group who reached the Tour Championship. The average position on the money list for those eight players was 82.375, with Yang skewing the statistics at No. 10 on the strength of two victories.
Ten of the 25 players from the Nationwide Tour kept their card, with only of them—Marc Leishman—advancing to the Tour Championship based on two good weeks outside Boston and Chicago. The average position on the money list for Nationwide grads was 86.8.
DIVOTS: Americans won only five of the 27 events on the LPGA Tour schedule this year. … The U.S. Open has been a sellout the last 23 years, although this year remains a challenge. The USGA is offering a promotion in which anyone who buys tickets before Dec. 14 will receive a gift set—a ball marker and divot tool—to wrap in time for the holidays. Tickets would not be mailed until May. … Rory McIlroy moved to No. 10 in the world with this third-place finish in Dubai. He joins Sergio Garcia as the only 20-year-old players to reach the top 10 in the world. Tiger Woods did not get there until he was 21, and then he never left. … The PGA Tour has signed an eight-year deal with Sky Sports to broadcast its tournaments live in the United Kingdom. The tour had left Sky for Irish-based Setanta until that network filed for bankruptcy protection in June.
STAT OF THE WEEK: Europe has six players among the top 10 for the first time since the world ranking began in 1986.
FINAL WORD: “What’s he got going for him? Twenty years old. Millionaire already. Hits it miles. Nice-looking girlfriend. Drives a Lamborghini. Yeah, it’s hard, isn’t it?”—Lee Westwood on Rory McIlroy.

108 Comments
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I have read and reread the entire article above and I find nothing racist in it. The only racist comments herein are by you, and your ilk, who never seem to tire of riding a tired horse to death. I am NOT prejudiced against the color of skin, religion, sexeual preference, or anything else. What I do have a prejudice against are mindless wonders such as yourself (and oh Mr. OK). Doesnt it embarass you at all to be placed in a category with that idiot!
I do not ask you nor any person of color to prove anything to me. I consider you human beings and treat you as such. Only thing is, that your attitude makes it so hard.
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The manner in which this article was written shows that race is still a major part of our sports writing, and conversation here in these united of states. If the readers did not know better, they would think that Spike Lee or Richard Pryor won six PGA tournaments this year, and maybe Malcolm X or Jessie Jackson won 10.5 million dollars this golf season. It is sad that beat writers are still getting paid so much money to cause so many issues in today’s media.
I am a 45 year old black man whom grew up in Modesto California and I remember when blacks and whites did not drink out of the same water units in junior high school. During that same time; I remember the movie “Roots” came out and we had to fight every day; just to show white people that we were human beings and not the animals that their parents told them we were.
Today we have a black President, we have black governors; we even have a black Supreme Court justice. We live in areas that whites only use to live. Many of us pay our bills on time. My question to white America is, “When can we stop proving to you that black people are human beings to?”
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You should change your name to Mr. Bitterman.
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I know you really dont mean all those comments about Tiger.
1st of all he was not spanked by anyone. He was in contention in 3 of the 4 majors. If it was not for 3 consecutive bad holes in bad weather...he might have made a run at the Open.
Tiger was coming off of a major knee operation. You probably don't play golf but if your not 100% comfortable in your knee, then you don't play well. It takes 12 to 18 months to get back to normal. Still Tiger won 6 times this year and the fields were all major caliber fields. He only finished out of the top 10 a couple of times.
He is by far the best golfer in the PGA right now. It would not surprise me if he won 3 majors in each of the next 6 years which in the next 6 years he will double the major win list that Jack established.
There arwe those that don't like him, and everyone has their own opinions. But don't call him a sissy when you really don't believe that, unless you have something to base it on.
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Tiger came back from serious knee surgery to win 6 events. That says it all. Right now and for the last 6-7 years he is the best thing Golf has going. What would the PGA do without him? He will eventually start losing more, it just happens, but I don't see it happening for a few years. So go eat your words on top of everything else you eat and get Fatter. Soon another Tiger will come along and you can gripe about him also. Until then, the Tiger Man will be the guy to beat for quite sometime.
Hit Them Straight!
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Easily the most overpaid executive in sports history; How gracious of him to get out and work 18 straight days on the road- perhaps he'll come up with another nugget like the Fed-Ex Cup.........
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#84 has got to BE Yogi Bera
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Me
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