Wailea, HI (My Sportsbook) - Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?
The first hole Sunday at the Wendy's Champions Skins Game will hold a prize value of $220,000 after four all-star pairings pushed the last five holes in the opening round on Saturday.
Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson joined defending champions Raymond Floyd and Dana Quigley with two skins apiece on the first four holes at Wailea, garnering each team $60,000.
Last season's No. 1 and 2 players on the Champions Tour -- Jay Haas and Loren Roberts, paired with a Hall of Famers Gary Player and Arnold Palmer respectively -- were shut out in the nine-hole round. Neither team made a single birdie.
Each of the first six holes was worth $30,000. Nicklaus and Watson won their first skin at No. 1 when Watson stuck it within four feet and Nicklaus cleaned up for a birdie.
But they were soon surpassed for the lead.
At the third, Floyd knocked his approach within six feet to set up a dead- straight birdie putt for Quigley, who made it for two skins and $60,000.
"Sixty what?" Quigley joked.
Nicklaus and Watson came right back, though, and won the fourth hole when Watson cashed in his partner's close approach with a four-foot birdie putt. Nicklaus appeared to hit the approach thin, but it wound up in perfect position for Watson.
"He can't hit it fat because it hurts his body," Watson ribbed the 66-year-old Nicklaus.
At the fifth, Floyd missed an uphill eight-foot birdie putt that would have given his team the outright lead.
And so it went the rest of the way, leaving $180,000 leftover for the second round.
The first three holes on Sunday are worth $40,000 apiece, making No. 10's value $220,000. Holes 13-17 are worth $50,000 apiece, and No. 18 is $100,000.
Last year, Floyd and Quigley won the 17th hole for nine skins and $410,000 and finished with 10 total skins for $510,000.
The Skins Game is an unofficial event on the Champions Tour schedule. The season begins in earnest at next week's MasterCard Championship, where Roberts shot a course-record 61 on Sunday to win last year.