They couldn't ask for a better field. Or a more hype-able collection of story lines.
There's Tiger vs. Tom Terrific. The kid got chewed up Down Under by the Shark. Will he get revenge on one of the game's greatest players -- one of the year's comeback kids -- in the desert?
There's Long John Daly vs. Tiger. Both play the grip-rip game, but who's longer? Who's better? Who can down the most junk food?
And, there's Fred vs. the field. No one plays better every November and December. Even with a so-so back. This second season was made for the game's favorite couch potato. There's no pressure, no tough schedule to keep. He plays this time of the year for fun. It just so happens each tournament comes with big cash attached. Even for the losers.
WELCOME TO THE $illy $eason where the stars shine brighter, the rich get richer and every weekend comes with its own made-for-television event. This week's offering just happens to be the mother -- or would it be the father? -- of all these do-you-believe-it events, the $kin$ Game featuring Fred Couples, Tiger Woods, Tom Watson and John Daly. A cool $540,000 is up for grabs in La Quinta, Calif., a town where the sun always shines and the skins just seem to carry over.
So does the hype.
Just a few weeks ago, Daly pronounced himself ready for his head-to-head battle with Tiger. Daly stepped onto the course a few years ago and grabbed the oohh-ee long title away from Greg Norman. Now Tiger, the man-child phenom, has taken it from him. He wants it back.
"I'm not scared of Tiger," he told Sports Illustrated. "I'm not scared to go head-to-head. I'm not scared to have a long-driving contest with him. Who's to say who's longer?"
With our luck, the ABC announcers. On every hole.
As for Tiger vs. Watson? There are only two shinier matchups for the kid -- Jack Nicklaus and Norman. Norman took his shot at the Australian Open, beat the kid by 12 shots, then announced he was taking three months off to rest his back. Nicklaus has been in too many of these things -- a record nine if you're counting (16 if you count seven Senior Skins Games). Plus, he has a business or two to run.
SO WHAT WE HAVE here is a battle of the irascible putters. Watson, with eight majors to his credit, never knows when his will work. Woods, who racked up nearly $800,000 in earnings in two months as he played his way into the Tour Championship, never knows at which inopportune moment his will take a break.
But does it matter? The country can't get enough of this kid with the 1,000-watt smile. You can't even debate his presence here. Once he turned pro, he was in. There were even a few rumblings of him playing if he had remained an amateur.
Get ready to be Tigered out once again. After all, this show is for show.
The original Skins game in 1983 brought together four of the greatest players of all time -- Watson, Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player -- in a cozy little weekend match among buddies. For those big bucks, big revenues and big ratings. If you were snowed in at Cleveland or Erie, wouldn't you want to see the sun? Even on television?
Thus, the made-for-TV season was born.
Some 14 years later, the Skins is still the biggest and flashiest. It's always chock full of inside jokes and stars who don't mind gabbing with open mikes. The pace is slow and easy; the atmosphere plain fun, which is the best reason to explain why Couples is the Skins' biggest winner.
IN A MERE four appearances, the Tour's version of Pooh Bear has collected $910,000, including a one-hole record of $270,000 won last year on the fifth hole of sudden death. It was his first Skins win, too, after three seasons as runner-up.
As always, Couples comes in nursing a bad back, but that really doesn't matter. Heck, even babying those vertebrae all season he still won The Players Championship and more than $1.2 million. Kind of makes you wonder what a healthy Couples might be able to do.
The only pressure here? That every PGA Tour player who's played here has won at least one skin. Although sometimes it took more than one try.
Woods won't want to leave empty-handed. Nor playing second-fiddle to Daly in a heads-up driving contest. That alone is worth a peek. Add in Watson, who seems to have found his game just in time for the Senior Tour, and Couples, my pick to win big again, and you've got the best made-for-TV-and-leftover-turkey event of the season.
Or at the very least, the best hyped.
Melanie Hauser is a freelance writer and a board member of the Golf Writers Association of America.