Lehman Picks Up Some ‘Chunk’ Change

LA QUINTA â€”  Here’s the tally from the first day of the Skins Game: putts that missed the hole, shots that missed the green and enough golf balls that missed dry land that somebody should have put in a call to “Baywatch.â€�

Of course, Saturday’s list wouldn’t be complete without something else. That would be money, and lots of it. This is nothing unusual for the $600,000 Skins Game, where opulence is par for the course.

Tom Lehman had the best day at Rancho La Quinta, stuffing $130,000 into his golf bag, including a curling 18-foot birdie putt on the eighth hole that was worth a very cool $100,000.

Afterward, Lehman described the total experience.

“It was a nice chunk of money,� he said.

Well, yes, it was, although Lehman was fortunate to receive a nice assist from Mark O’Meara, who missed his 12-footer that would have halved the hole. Maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference anyway because Lehman won the next hole with a 10-footer for birdie.

Even if Lehman picked up the biggest stack from the $210,000 bundle that was available Saturday, Tiger Woods did all right too. He birdied the par-three third hole from four feet to win a two-hole carry-over worth $60,000.

O’Meara’s eight-foot birdie putt won the next hole, which was worth $20,000. Meanwhile, David Duval was shut out. He wondered later if there was a rule against him winning a skin, since he wasn’t even supposed to be here until Fred Couples had to pull out because of his father’s illness. Tom Couples died last week in Seattle.

But Duval said it wasn’t his late arrival that caused him problems.

“It was lack of good play,� he said.

Outside of Lehman’s lengthy, curving putt, there were only slightly more great putts than the number of wheels on your golf cart. There were only eight birdies, three of them by Lehman, who never really had a chance to think about his $100,000 putt because he didn’t think he’d get the money.

“I had to make it because Mark was going to make it,� Lehman said. “I wasn’t thinking about the money. I was thinking about halving the hole.�

Five of the first nine holes were halved, but that wasn’t all. Two cars were given away and one more is headed for the garage of the Skins Game winner. The players don’t keep all of the money they win--they donate 10% to charity.

In its 15th year, the Skins Game is so old now that Woods, a month shy of 22, is the only player in the field who has played it before.

Lehman said he played a skins format at an Arnold Palmer event in Pennsylvania, but his only other skins experiences are with his buddies for $10 or $20. The only one of the four who didn’t reach $1 million in official earnings and who didn’t win an event this year, Lehman said it really wasn’t such a bad 12 months after all.

“There’s a very fine line between what’s perceived to be real good and what’s perceived to be average,� he said. “I wasn’t too far off.�

He certainly wasn’t after nine holes Saturday.