While winning golf's Skins Game might have been lacking in substance, it was nevertheless welcome to Tom Watson.
Watson, who won the first skin in the first Skins Game but had missed this competition for a decade, sank a 20-foot playoff birdie putt Sunday to win golf's made-for-television event.The winning putt, almost identical to one he'd missed moments earlier, eased some of the frustration the five-time British Open champion had experienced in a frustrating season and capped a day of missed opportunities at the Bighorn Golf Course.
It was worth $160,000 and gave Watson a total of $210,000 for the two-day, 18-hole event. It was his first win of any kind since the 1992 Hong Kong Open and his first in the United States since the 1987 Nabisco Championships.
Nice, Watson said, but not quite the same as a regular-tour triumph.
"Since the first of the year, I said was playing well enough to win this year," said Watson, who had finished second in a tournament in Japan last week. "I had chances to win 4-5 tournaments, but it was not to be.
"So this is not the icing on the cake. It's just the icing. The cake isn't there.
"But it's still very sweet."
Fred Couples, who had won his three previous starts in special events following the regular tour season, was runner-up in this tournament for the third consecutive year.
Couples hit a wedge to 4 feet for a birdie at the 14th hole. With carry-overs, it was worth $170,000 - all he won in the two days - and pushed his earnings for the month of November to $750,000.
Couples said he "was very nervous" over the short putt.
"I hadn't made any money and I didn't want to get shut out, so somehow I shook it in," he said. "It was the first chance I'd had to win a skin."
He nearly made $120,000 at the 17th where his 20-foot chip for birdie hit the hole and spun out. The frustrated Couples turned his back on the hole and flipped his sand wedge into a pond.
"I don't know how it stayed out, but it did," Couples said. The birdie was lost, but the club was retrieved.
Payne Stewart, winner of the past three Skins Games, and Paul Azinger each won $80,000, all of it over the first nine holes played in extremely windy weather Saturday.
There was little or no wind Sunday, but the overall play improved about the same: little or none.
"No one can explain it," Watson said. "It just happened."
"It's hard to believe that four guys can play nine holes and nobody makes a putt," Couples said, then looked at Watson.
"We didn't. Nobody made a putt until you did."
And there were ample opportunities.
Stewart missed a 15-footer for a winning birdie at the first hole and Watson missed from about the same distance for a winning birdie at the second.
Watson missed from 6 feet for a winning birdie at the 12th, and from 8 feet to tie Couples at the 14th.
Azinger twice missed 5-footers for winning birdies.
"On the 13th, it was just nerves," he said. "On the 17th, it was a very hard putt. I hit a good putt, but it didn't go in."
That one, which followed Couples' lipped-out chip, was for $120,000. When the hole was halved, the 18th took on a $160,000 value.
It was halved in pars, with Watson missing from about 22 feet and Couples from 20.
That sent the four players back to the 18th tee for a playoff.
After the other three had played three shots apiece, Watson was faced with a putt that was almost the same, only slightly shorter, than the one he'd missed moments earlier.
"I got this one on line," he said.