Wendy's Champions Skins Game: Preview notebook

text size

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- How accomplished is the field for the Wendy's Champion Skins Game? The eight players have amassed 568 victories worldwide, a total that encompasses PGA TOUR, Champions Tour, International, team, collegiate and PGA Section events. Topping the list is that international combination of Gary Player and his partner Bernhard Langer, who have 231 career worldwide victories. That is the highest total for a team in the four-year history of the alternate-shot, team format.

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS: The eight players have combined for 43 PGA TOUR major championships, with Jack Nicklaus accounting for 18 of those. Player (nine), Tom Watson (eight), Greg Norman (two), Langer (two), Ben Crenshaw (two) and Zoeller (two) account for the rest.

YOU CAN BUY AN ISLAND WITH THIS: When you add up the total earnings from their careers, the eight players have banked $107,939,965 in official PGA TOUR, Champions Tour, international and team events. Heading that total is the team of Norman and Haas, who have earned a combined $37,925,498.

TEAM OF RIVALS: The pairing of Norman and Haas is notable not only for that lofty earnings total, but for what awaits the pair later this year. Norman will captain the International Team in the Presidents Cup at Harding Park in San Francisco. There, he will match strategy and tactics with not only United States captain Fred Couples, but Couples' assistant captain -- none other than Haas.

MAKE THE ROOKIES GET THE BAG: This year's field features three rookies: Norman, Langer and Crenshaw. Two of the rookies -- Langer and Crenshaw -- are making their first appearance in any skins game. Crenshaw entered the field when defending co-champion Jacobsen bowed out due to injury. He will play with Zoeller. Meanwhile, Nicklaus is playing in his 19th and Player his 10th. Nicklaus owns three titles (1991, 2005, 2007) and Player one (2000). Last year's Wendy's Champions Skins Game was devoid of rookies for the first time since 2004.

YES, BUT THERE WEREN'T THIS MANY BUILDINGS THEN: Three-time event champion Nicklaus has fond memories of Royal Kaanapali. On the original incarnation of Royal Kaanapali, Nicklaus teamed with Palmer to win the 1964 Canada Cup, the precursor to the World Cup. Nicklaus also won the individual title.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: The purse this week is $770,000. It breaks down thusly: Holes 1-6 -- $30,000 per hole; holes 7-12 -- $40,000 per hole; holes 13-17 -- $50,000 per hole; and hole 18/Wendy's Super Skin -- $100,000.

DOING GOOD BY PLAYING GOOD: The players will donate 10% of their winnings to charity: 5% to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and 5% to their designated charities.

NICKLAUS, THY NAME IS DOMINANCE: The Wendy's Champions Skins Game has served as a nice playground for Nicklaus, who has etched his name throughout the popular event's record book. Nicklaus owns 10 career Wendy's Champions Skins Game records, including most career skins (104) and most career money ($2,430,000). His 68 front-nine skins are more than every other competitor's total skins, save Ray Floyd, who has 69.

RECORDS, RECORDS, RECORDS: Last year, Royal Kaanapali yielded two more event records. The eight-skin front-nine total from Nicklaus and Watson moved them to the top of the list for most front-nine skins, tying their mark from 2006 and Nicklaus' solo mark from 1990. And the $270,000 Nicklaus and Watson earned is the largest amount earned on the front nine.

A HIP CHECK: Coming off hip-replacement surgery on his left hip, this is Watson's first event since the WalMart First Tee Open in August. In that, he has yet another thing in common with his partner -- Nicklaus -- who had hip-replacement surgery in 1998.

IT'S OT, BABY!: When Zoeller tapped in for par on the first playoff hole last year, it marked the 17th time in 21 events that extra holes were needed to decide the Wendy's Champions Skins Game title. The extra hole was the 38th playoff hole in event history.

YOU DON'T WANT TO BE FIRST: Once again, the "First Skin Curse" reared its head in the 2008 event. Loren Roberts' 10-foot birdie putt on the first hole gave him and teammate Player the opening skin. It didn't, however, lead them to the title, which isn't surprising. Only three times in the 21-year history of the event has the winner of the first-hole skin gone on to win the title. Those came from Nicklaus-Watson (2007), Lee Trevino (2003) and Ray Floyd (1996).

GET TO KNOW YOUR HOST COURSE: The Royal Kaanapali Course, a Robert Trent Jones Senior design, opened in 1962. A par 71 stretching 6,700 yards, the Royal Course combines wide fairways and undulating greens. A course with a rich pedigree, Royal Kaanapali played host to the Champions Tour Kaanapali Classic for 14 years, the most recent of a long list of events that includes Shell's Wonderful World of Golf, the Canada Cup and the LPGA's Kemper Open. Past champions at Royal Kaanapali include such golfing greats as Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Jan Stephenson and Betsy King.

STILL A RARE BIRD INDEED: There have only been five eagles carded in the 19-year history of the Wendy's Champions Skins Game and Nicklaus owns four of them. He and partner Watson both recorded eagles in 2004.

BIRDIES? THEY'RE OUT THERE SOMEWHERE: Behind the seven birdies carded by Player and Roberts, the eight players combined for 19 birdies at Royal Kaanapali last year. That was the highest total since four players combined for 20 in 2001 at the Wailea Gold Course and two behind the event record of 21 registered in 1990 and 1992 -- both at Mauna Lani on the Big Island. The individual record is eight, done twice by Rodriguez (1988, 1992).

TIMING IS EVERYTHING: Four of the seven birdies Player and Roberts carded last year came on the front nine -- but the pair earned money on only the first one. For that, they can thank a holed-out bunker shot on No. 6 by Nicklaus and birdies by Palmer (No. 3) and Jacobsen (No. 7) for painful halves. The latter came after Roberts -- considered one of the best putters in the world -- drained a 25-foot birdie putt.

THESE ARE THE HOLES TO SCORE ON: The players managed to birdie 12 of Royal Kaanapali's 18 holes last year, going under par on holes 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17. Skins were earned on holes 1, 4, 9, 11, 14, 17 and 18 (in the playoff).

A BLESSING FOR ALL COMPETITORS: In a Hawaiian Island tradition, Senior Pastor Laki P. Kaahumanu blessed the Wendy's Champions Skins Game in a brief ceremony on the putting green Friday morning. "It's really to bless those who have been a blessing for us," Kaahumanu said. "When you look at the people who come to Hawaii, when you look at the amount of people drawn to this event, they're drawn to the game because of these people, because of these great champions. If they've been a blessing to all people, we should ask God to bless them, to stay among us as long as they can."

YES, THEY'RE BACK: Once again, tournament organizers flew in Curtis Strange, John Mahaffey, Bruce Lietzke and Andy North to take part in two extra pro-ams. For North, who broadcast golf for ABC and ESPN for many years, it was back-to-the-future time. He served as an on-course announcer at this event for much of this decade and will once again join Terry Gannon in the ESPN booth this year.