Nicklaus-Watson Wins 2007 Champions Skins Game

Jack Nicklaus wasn't in a giving mood.

Nicklaus and Tom Watson earned seven skins and $260,000 on the back nine Jan. 14 to edge Gary Player and Hay Haas in the Champions Skins Game.
Team Nicklaus-Watson finished with nine skins and $320,000, boosting the Golden Bear to a career-record 96 skins and $2,295,000. Second in 2006, Nicklaus and Watson sealed the win when Player-Haas bogeyed the first playoff hole and were eliminated.

"I think we were both determined not to lose,'' Nicklaus said.

The thrilling finish in 2007 happened in extra holes, not a surprising outcome in an event that went to overtime in 16 out of 20 years. Coming into the second day with $60,000, Nicklaus and Watson seized the lead and $260,000 when Watson sank an 18-foot birdie putt on No. 11, but had to endure a furious rally from Player and Haas, who won $140,000 on No. 14, then another $150,000 on No. 17, when Player drained a 30-foot birdie putt.

When Player directed a short iron to six feet and Haas sank the subsequent birdie putt on No. 18 – the Wendy’s Super Skin hole – the pair seemed on the verge of scooping up another $100,000. But Nicklaus parked his iron shot 10 inches from the cup, leaving Watson a tap-in birdie and sending everyone to extra holes.

“The way I was struggling with my short strokes out there, he told me on the 18th hole ‘You’re not going to have a chance to putt this. I’m going to hit it so close, you’re not going to have to putt this,’ ” Watson said afterward. “And he did. He knocked it 10 inches from the hole. That’s Nicklausian, that’s what that is.”

The magic ran out for Player and Haas on the first playoff hole, when they bogeyed the hole and were eliminated. One hole later, Palmer rammed home a 10-foot birdie putt for the $100,000, meaning all four teams were on the scoreboard.

“It’s just so much fun watching the guys, listening to them and watching them perform,” Haas said. “It was last night I think somebody said to Jack, ‘Boy you sure played well’ and he said, ‘I don’t know what happened.’ I said, ‘Well what happened was the bell rung. It was time to play and he just seems to turn it on.’ And Tom, he still hits it as well as he ever has and I don’t think he missed a shot in two days. He just played beautifully and they were a tough combo for sure.”

Both together and separately, Nicklaus and Watson are a tough combo indeed. The team’s 2006 title was Nicklaus’ third (1991, 2005 and 2006) and Watson’s second (2004, 2006). In the first year of the alternate-shot, team format, the pair finished second to Ray Floyd and Dana Quigley in 2006. The year before, Nicklaus banked 11 skins and $340,000 – the largest payday he ever earned in his legendary career. In 2004, Watson won 10 skins and $400,000.