The Story

By Don Matheson

You may know I’m an avid golfer who grew up in Canada.  I have been in the real estate business for 38 years, and the last 19 years right here in Scottsdale.

From the very start, it is the PGA Skins game that interested me in Scottsdale and the then, new and premier Desert Highlands Golf Club.  In fact,  it convinced me Scottsdale was a great place to do business and Desert Highlands became my home.

The first PGA Skins Game was played in 1983 at Desert Highlands Golf Club airing on NBC stations across the Americas (yes, including Canada) with Vince Scully commentating. The event took place on Thanksgiving weekend after the end of the official PGA Tour season.

While the PGA recognized the event, the purse was not included on the official money list.  It was intended to be a showcase for  the player-personalities and to highlight ‘the love of the game’. I looked forward to the battle every year!

The event was played Thanksgiving weekend from 1983 – 2008 and produced some of the most memorable and personable moments in golf.    It is a tournament I’m hopeful will resume someday. Look at our blog to learn about the best moments in PGA Skins history.

Besides the vibrancy of both the fans and the people in the skins tournament each year, the other difference between this event and other PGA tournaments is remarkable.  Only four golfers were invited to play in the tournament each year.

They played to win individual holes or ‘skins’ using a match play format.  Monetary values varied from hole to hole.

The golfer taking the hole with the best score won the money for that hole.  If two or more players tied for the win on a hole (halving the hole), the skin carried over to the next hole and so did the money. When, or if, the final hole is halved a playoff begins, until one golfer wins outright.

The first year, the fab-four of golf, Arnold Palmer, Gary Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson duked it out at Desert Highlands.  On 12, Arnold Palmer sunk a 40′ putt for birdie and won $100,000; a lot of money back then.

But it was Gary Player who took home the largest piece of the pie at the Desert Highlands inaugural event. He earned $170,000 that year.   $150,000 of his prize money came from a 4-foot birdie putt on 17.  It is said that Player was visibly shaking on the putt.  That $150,000 was more than he had ever won in a single year of his career.  Don Ohlmeyer told Arizona Golf, “He [Gary Player] was hyperventilating so bad he couldn’t take the club back on 18.”

What’s truly wonderful, as I think back on this ‘Throwback Thursday” is that not everything changes.  In 1983, and today, Desert Highlands remains a premier country club in Scottsdale.

I’m still an avid golfer and Desert Highlands is one of my favorite courses in town. Another thing that remains is the wonder of Scottsdale.

By Dave Anderson, New York Times

About an hour after Gary Player won $150,000 with a 5-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole in The Skins Game golf event yesterday, Tom Watson accused the South African, who won a total of $170,000, of having cheated on the previous hole by removing a rooted leaf that was resting against his ball.

”Tom thought that I’d moved a leaf that I shouldn’t have,” Gary Player said later, ”but I told him I didn’t, and he accepted that. And that’s the way we left it.”

Tom Watson had no comment. Neither did Jack Nicklaus nor Joe Dey, the former PGA Tour commissioner who was the rules referee in yesterday’s foursome, both of whom were present in the controlled but obviously controversial 10-minute confrontation just off a dirt road between the Desert Highlands sales office and the press tent.

Arnold Palmer, who won $140,000 with a $100,000 birdie putt of 40 feet on the 12th hole, was not in the discussion.

From 30 feet away, Tom Watson could be heard saying, “I’m accusing you, Gary… you can’t do that… I’m tired of this… I wasn’t watching you, but I saw it.” Gary Player could be heard defending himself, saying at one point, “I was within the rules.”

Tom Watson’s contention was that, under the Rules of Golf, the leaf could not be moved because it was not a loose impediment. Gary Player argued that it was loose and could be removed.

At stake at the time was $120,000, a carry-over from three previous $30,000 holes in The Skins Game format. Arnold Palmer appeared to be out of contention on the 244-yard, par-3 hole, having plopped a wedge into a greenside bunker from out of the desert scrub. Jack Nicklaus had lipped out a 90-foot birdie about 4 feet past. Tom Watson then chipped with a sand wedge from 80 feet to within 4 inches.

After removing the leaf, Gary Player then chipped with a sand wedge from 60 feet to within 8 inches.

With both Tom Watson and Gary Player making par 3’s on the 16th to create another $30,000 carry- over in the two-tie, all-tie format, the 570-yard 17th hole suddenly was worth $150,000, which the South African won with a 5-foot putt after Tom Watson had missed a 10-footer and Jack Nicklaus an 8-footer.

Tom Watson’s argument, of course, was that if Gary Player had not improved his lie, perhaps the 48-year-old South African would not have chipped his ball so close to the cup. If both Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus had missed their par putts, Tom Watson would have won $120,000 with his par 3.

As it was, the five-time British Open champion won only $10,000 of the $360,000 jackpot with a birdie 3 on the opening hole of the front nine that was played Saturday.

Jack Nicklaus, with a $30,000 birdie 4 on the 18th hole after topping a 3-wood off the fairway, earned a total of $40,000 on the course he designed. During the round, the Golden Bear inquired of Joe Dey about Gary Player’s using a different ball, a Pinnacle instead of a Titleist, on the 16th hole. On the PGA Tour, a golfer is permitted to use only one brand throughout the round.

“But the one-ball rule wasn’t in effect here,” Jack Nicklaus said later. “I think Gary only used the Pinnacle on one hole, the 16th.”

Yes, the 16th. That’s the hole that will be remembered now because of Tom Watson’s accusation. At that green, Tom Watson did not complain, either to Gary Player or Joe Dey, but his face was grim as he stalked silently to the 17th tee. Minutes later, Gary Player holed his $150,000 putt, tossing his white cap in the air. When the foursome arrived at the 18th tee, Jack Nicklaus glanced at Tom Watson.

“Well, Thomas,” he said, “you and I are not doing very well.”

Tom Watson did not answer. Gary Player, meanwhile, was taking off his light blue sweater before he hit his tee shot.

“It gets warm doesn’t it, Gary?” said Arnold Palmer, laughing.

“That’ll buy you another horse,” Jack Nicklaus said to Player.

“Isn’t it amazing,” Gary Player said, glancing at Arnold Palmer, “we’ve been playing 30 years, and this is the biggest day we’ve ever had.”

At the 177-yard 12th hole, Arnold Palmer had rolled in his $100,000 putt after having “gone to school,” as golfers say, on Tom Watson’s 42-foot putt from a few feet away on the same area of the green. As the ball rolled almost completely around the cup before dropping in, the desert troops of Arnie’s Army howled while the 54-year-old commander repeatedly clenched his right fist and waved his white visor.

“If I hadn’t seen Tom’s putt, I would’ve had 50 percent less chance of making my putt,” Arnold Palmer said later. “Tom’s putt trailed off to the left. I just tried to get mine outside of the hole. But after I saw Tom’s putt, my thoughts were that I could make the putt.”

After the 12th hole, the carry-overs kept building until the 17th, when Gary Player nearly holed a sand wedge from off the fairway from about 90 yards. Now, on the 18th tee, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer knew that, after not having been contenders for a major championship in recent years, they were assured more money in The Skins Game format than either Jack Nicklaus, their longtime rival, or Tom Watson, the world’s best golfer over the last seven years.

“The winners laugh and make funny jokes, the losers keep playing,” Jack Nicklaus was saying now with a smile on the 18th tee. “Deal the cards.”

Throughout the repartee on the 18th tee, Tom Watson never spoke. But about an hour later, after the press-tent interview, after the check-presentation ceremony, after the autographs, after virtually all of yesterday’s 1,000 spectators had departed, Tom Watson confronted Gary Player on a dirt road not far from the 18th green, then they walked several feet off the road with Jack Nicklaus and Joe Dey. Until then, The Skins Game had added a new excitement to golf – the tension of somebody putting for as much as $150,000 and $100,000.

To most American golf followers, the wrong man, Gary Player, had won the most money. Arnold Palmer had been the people’s choice, but they would have enjoyed Jack Nicklaus or Tom Watson winning too.

And now the question will always be asked about what Gary Player did or did not do with that leaf off the 16th green.