2011 Champions Skins Game – Kaanapali Golf Courses, Maui

January 27th, 2011 |

The Champions Skins Game returns to the Royal Ka’anapali Golf Course, Saturday. Jan 29 – Sunday Jan 30, 2011.

HawaiiOnTV.com will be brining you Exclusive footage from the 2011 Champions Skins Game at the Royal Ka’anapali Golf Course!

Two of the greatest performers in sports (Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson) will defend their title against fellow Hall of Fame members and major championship winners as the 24th Ka’anapali Champions Skins Game returns to the beautiful island of Maui, Hawaii and the Royal Ka’anapali Golf Course Jan. 29-30, 2011

In the Ka’anapali Champions Skins Game format, each hole becomes a tournament within itself and the prize money is carried over if no team wins the hole outright. The $770,000 purse is distributed to $30,000 for each of the first six holes, $40,000 for each of the middle six holes, $50,000 each for holes 13 through 17, and $100,000 for the 18 th hole.

The players will donate 10 percent of their earnings to a charity of their choice.

Here is a snapshot of the four teams:

Jack Nicklaus – Tom Watson: These two legends and Hall of Fame members have entertained and amazed sports fans for decades. Still considered the greatest to play the game, Nicklaus started his professional career by winning the 1962 U.S. Open for the first of an unmatched 18 major championship titles. Watson excited the sports world in 2009 as he led the British Open late into Sunday before losing a playoff to Stewart Cink. It would have been Watson’s sixth Open title. Together this twosome has won 134 official events on both the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour.

Ben Crenshaw – Fuzzy Zoeller: While Zoeller has won two consecutive competitions as an individual teaming with Peter Jacobsen in 2008 and Crenshaw in 2009 as a duo they nearly became the first team to win back-to-back titles a year ago. The twosome earned three skins on the final day and finished second. Hall of Fame member Crenshaw has accumulated 19 PGA TOUR victories, including the 1984 and 1995 Masters. Zoeller won the 1979 Masters, the 1984 U.S. Open and the 2002 Senior PGA Championship during a career that has included 12 victories.

Fred Couples – Nick Price: Last year marked the debut for both of these players in the Ka’anapali Champions Skins Game. They will also be the youngest team in the competition. Following his Champions Tour debut at this event last year, Couples went on to win three consecutive Champions Tour titles, finished second in season-ending honors to Langer and was named Rookie of the Year. Couples owns15 career titles on the PGA TOUR and has won the Tour’s version of the Skins seven times. Price, an 18 time winner on TOUR, made a four-foot birdie putt in a playoff last year to help this team win two skins and finish third.

Bernhard Langer – Mark O’Meara: This team is in place for the first time. Langer, a two-time Masters champion, has enjoyed another magnificent year by winning nearly all the Champions Tour major awards, including the Charles Schwab Cup (point’s leader), the Jack Nicklaus Trophy (Player of the Year) and the Arnold Palmer Award (leading money-winner). He also became the first Champions Tour players in history to win the Jack Nicklaus Trophy and the Arnold Palmer Award three consecutive years. O’Meara, also a multiple major championship winner, earned his first two Champions Tour titles this year. He won 16 titles on the PGA TOUR.