Floyd Has His Cake, and the Icing : His 10-Footer on 16 Earns Him $165,000 of His $290,000 Total

LA QUINTA —  There may be nothing as exciting as watching four multimillionaires play 2 days of golf for $450,000, gold jewelry and expensive cars. What? No Waterford crystal?

Amid such opulence, Raymond Floyd said it wouldn’t have made any difference to him if he were playing for $10 a hole. But he was lucky enough the stakes at the Skins Game were a little higher.

Floyd said he played for pride . . . and money.

“We are playing for dollars, but we all play for pride--that’s No. 1,” Floyd said.

He must have been proud to win so many dollars Sunday. Floyd, who would not have even played the Skins if the event’s sponsors had not chosen him, won $200,000 at PGA West and finished the 2-day, made-for-TV show with $290,000.

Floyd, the 1986 U.S. Open champion won six skins, five of them on one very rich hole. That was the par-5 16th, which played 560 yards with two huge bunkers hugging the left side of the fairway and $165,000 on the green.

“I had no idea how much money was at stake,” Floyd said.

Floyd coaxed in a little downhill, left-to-right, 10-foot birdie putt that gave him $165,000, the most expensive skin of the affair, when Curtis Strange pulled a makeable 7-footer to the left.

It could have been worth dollars or doughnuts as Floyd said, but when his putt dropped in the hole, he decided to make a quick accounting of his new-found wealth.

“I started looking for that sign that said how much the hole was worth,” he said.

So Floyd, who has won nearly $4 million on the PGA Tour, wound up the big winner in the 6th Skins Game. For the 2 days, Jack Nicklaus won $125,000, Lee Trevino $35,000 and Curtis Strange got absolutely nothing.

“You don’t want to be shut out like I was,” Strange said.

However, Strange can return home to Virginia as the first million-dollar winner in 1 year on the PGA, which should be some kind of a salve for his wounded pride.

Nicklaus, who has won nearly $5 million in his long and illustrious tournament career, made a 10-foot birdie putt on the 11th hole to earn $50,000 Sunday.

Trevino did not fare as well as last year when he won the most money, but he at least got one skin Sunday, and it was on the par-3 17th hole. Trevino made a 39-foot birdie putt and won $35,000 on the hole, the same one where he shot a hole-in-one worth $175,000 last year.

“That’s one hole I know how to play,” Trevino said.

As for the $310,000 he won a year ago, Trevino found some solace even though he hit three balls into the water Sunday.

“I lost all the balls,” Trevino said. “I played bad, very bad. I did pretty well last year, though. I still have that money, by the way.”

Meanwhile, Floyd played well, very well, according to Strange, who watched it all from close range.

“I think it was the best I’ve ever seen Raymond hit the golf ball,” Strange said.

The best shot Floyd hit, according to the bank statement anyway, was on 16. After Nicklaus’ skin at 11, no one won a hole outright until the 16th, so all the money carried over and waited for someone to take it.

Floyd did just that and wound up with 12 skins, but he said all the money involved wasn’t really that big a deal for him or the others.

“We really aren’t here for the money,” he said. “We are all at a stage in our careers, fortunately, where money is not a life-and-death situation.

“If you had us playing for just $10 or $25 a hole, we would still be trying just as hard.”

As hard as Strange might have tried, he didn’t make his first birdie until the 18th. He rolled in a 40-footer but didn’t get a chance to enjoy it for long. Trevino matched him with a 10-footer.

The players moved back to the 10th hole, also the 10th hole of the day. Floyd made a 15-foot birdie putt for the last $35,000 skin.

Floyd said he has been playing well since the PGA championship, in which he tied for ninth, but his finishes since then were a tie for 38th, a tie for 19th and a missed cut.

None of that mattered at the Skins, where the only measure of success is to make the right putt at the right time. In fact, Floyd hit drives into the water three times, including twice on the four holes preceding his 10-footer at 16, the one for the $165,000 skin.

“That’s one I’ll remember for a long, long time,” he said.