Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson win Champions Skins game
Champions Tour players, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson successfully defended their title to win the Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game on Sunday.
Watson’s charismatic 12 foot birdie putt on the 17th hole ensured a second straight victory for the player.
Watson and Nicklaus won the accolade in 2007 as well, which gave them $310,000 and seven skins on the North Course at Royal Ka'anapali Golf Resort.
Having the same vigour in them this year as well, the duo showed everyone that they are still in control of the game. The other pairs couldn’t match the brilliance and skill Tom and Jack had to offer.
“The beauty and tragedy of the Skins Game is what happened today," Watson stated. "Freddy (Couples) and Nick (Price) hit the ball close to the hole, they got tied a couple times and had straight-out opportunities a couple times and missed. We were just hanging on the sidelines until the 17th happened".
Bernhard Langer and Mark O’Meara were in second place with $300,000 and seven skins. Fuzzy Zoeller and Ben Crenshaw came in third place sharing two skins and prize money of 80,000. Zoeller and Crenshaw, who won the event in 2009, tied with Fred Couples and Nick Price.
The winning duo was in vintage form on the 17th hole when Nicklaus dropped his tee ball within 12 feet. Seeing Langer birdie the fifteenth hole, Watson swung his club for an amazing birdie and also attained five skins in the process. This secured victory for the pair and was surely a cause for jubilation.
Jack, joking about his tee shot, said that hit this dead ball up there and it travelled around in the wind before it actually became a right shot.
The four teams were actually in a playoff on the seventh hole. Nicklaus, Crenshaw and O’Meara managed to make putts, whereas Couples missed his short par putt to eliminate himself from the playoff. This shot hence left the player disappointed and not really in contention to win the tournament.
Another player not happy with his game was Price, who admitted on the television that they only hit one poor shot in the final round. Nick said that they couldn’t finish out well, something that was greatly executed by the winning team.
All eight players will donate ten percent of their winnings to charity. The Champions Skins game came to an end but was surely an exciting tournament to follow.
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