10 Best Moments from the Skins Game
10 Best Moments from the Skins Game
By Gary Van Sickle
What we now call the Silly Season, an endless parade of made-for-TV golf events, began with one not-so-silly event. That was the Skins Game in 1983, pitting the games greatest legends Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson against each other for what was then big money. And it was played on Thanksgiving weekend, a time normally reserved for football.
Imitation and inflation have done the rest. While the Skins Game has lost much of its appeal, it remains a guilty pleasure for golf addicts. Here, then, are the 10 most memorable Skins Game moments.
10. Rocky Six: The 1990 Skins game at PGA West came down to a tense, four-hole playoff between former U.S. Open playoff adversaries Curtis Strange and Nick Faldo. At No. 10, the first playoff hole, Strange hit an errant drive to the edge of a lake. To play his risky 125-yard approach shot, Strange removed his shoes and socks and balanced on the rocks, hitting a wedge shot that deflected off a large rock at impact but nonetheless landed on the green, six feet from the cup. Faldo sank a birdie putt from 12 feet and Strange sank his unlikely birdie putt for a halve. On the fourth extra hole, Faldo pulled his iron shot into the water and Strange claimed the final $70,000 with a routine par.


