Advance notes: Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game

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2011 KA'ANAPALI CHAMPIONS SKINS GAME
At Royal Ka'anapali Golf Course, Maui, Hawaii

THE TEAMS: Jack Nicklaus-Tom Watson
Fred Couples-Nick Price
Ben Crenshaw-Fuzzy Zoeller
Bernhard Langer-Mark O'Meara

SKINS GAME

2010 Recap
2010 Notebook
Past winners
Course overview

THE PURSE: The purse for the Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game is $770,000. Here is the breakdown:

Holes 1-6 -- $30,000 per hole
Holes 7-12 -- $40,000 per hole
Holes 13-17 -- $50,000 per hole
Hole 18/Super Skin -- $100,000

PRESENTING SPONSORS: Administaff, Time Warner Cable and Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka.

THE DATES: Jan. 29-30, 2011; Pro-Am, Jan. 28

THE FORMAT: Two-man team, Alternate-shot format. The front nine is played Saturday, Jan. 29, and the back nine on Sunday, Jan. 30.

THE VENUE: The Royal Ka'anapali Course, a Robert Trent Jones Senior design, opened in 1962. A par 71 stretching 6,700 yards, the Royal Course combines wide fairways and undulating greens. A course with a rich pedigree, Royal Ka'anapali played host to the Champions Tour Ka'anapali Classic for 14 years, the most recent of a long list of events that includes Shell's Wonderful World of Golf, the Canada Cup and the LPGA's Kemper Open. Past champions at Royal Ka'anapali include such golfing greats as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Jan Stephenson and Betsy King. This marks the fourth year the Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game will be contested here.

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

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS: The eight players have combined for 38 PGA TOUR major championships, with Jack Nicklaus accounting for 18 of those. Tom Watson (eight), Nick Price (three), Ben Crenshaw (two), Fuzzy Zoeller (two), Bernhard Langer (two), Mark O'Meara (two) and Fred Couples (one) account for the rest. This group has also accumulated 15 major championships on the Champions Tour. Nicklaus leads the group with seven. Langer, by the way, won his two last season.

MORE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE MAJORS: This year marks the first time since 2006, when the event became a team competition, that each competitor has at least one major championship on his record. Also, it is interesting to note that Mark O'Meara and Nick Price are two of only three players to win two majors in the same season in the 1990s. Nick Faldo is the other.

THE ROOKIE: This year's Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game features one rookie: Mark O'Meara. This marks the third straight year at least one of the competitors in the field is making his debut. Last year, Fred Couples and Nick Price represented the first rookie team to compete since the event moved to Royal Ka'anapali. With the exception of 2008, there has been at least one rookie in the competition since 2004.

THE VETERANS: Jack Nicklaus will be playing in his 21st Skins Game and Tom Watson will be competing in his 8th. Nicklaus owns four titles (1991, 2005, 2007, 2010) and Watson three (2004, 2007, 2010).

NICKLAUS-WATSON: This legendary twosome will be paired for the seventh consecutive time.

HALL OF FAME MEMBERS: Five of the eight players competing in the Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. The members and the year they were inducted: Ben Crenshaw (2002), Bernhard Langer (2002), Jack Nicklaus (1974), Nick Price (2003), Tom Watson (1988).

NICKLAUS: The Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game has been dominated by the Golden Bear. Jack Nicklaus owns 11 career Skins Game records, including most career skins (111) and most career money ($2,605,000). His 73 front-nine skins are more than every other competitor's TOTAL skins. Raymond Floyd is second with 69.

A FEW RECORDS TO MENTION: In 2009, champions Fuzzy Zoeller and Ben Crenshaw accumulated 12 skins on the back-nine for an event record...In 2010, Fred Couples and Nick Price earned three skins and $190,000, the most for a duo playing in this event for the first time since the team format was adopted in 2006.

PLAYOFFS: Last year's playoff marked the 19th time in 23 events that extra holes were needed to decide the Skins Game title. The first extra hole, birdied by Nick Price for the skin, was the 41st playoff hole in event history.

EAGLES HARD TO FIND: There have only been five eagles carded in the 23-year history of the Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game and Jack Nicklaus owns four of them. He and partner Tom Watson both recorded eagles in 2004. Last year, there was a combined 19 birdies recorded by the four teams.

FACEBOOK: This year, the Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game has a facebook page which will be updated throughout tournament week. Please visit Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game on Facebook page.