A skins game is a type of scoring for various sports, most notably golf but also for curling and bowling.

Golf

In golf, a skins event has players compete for prize money on each individual hole.

LG Skins Game

There is an annual skins game for male professional golfers which takes place in November or December each year after the end of the official PGA Tour season. It is recognized by the PGA Tour but does not count towards the official money list. It is currently sponsored by LG and is officially known as the LG Skins Game, hosted at the Indian Wells Golf Resort in Indian Wells, California.

The Skins Game differs from most PGA Tour golf tournaments in several ways. Only four golfers are invited to the tournament and the golfers play to win individual holes or "skins" in a match play format. Each hole is assigned a different monetary value and the golfer who wins the hole with the best score outright wins the money for that hole. In the event that two or more golfers tie (which is called "halving") on a hole, the skins carry over to the next hole. In the event that two or more golfers halve the final hole, a playoff begins until one golfer wins a hole outright. (In a playoff that requires more than one playoff hole, if a player is not one of those that halve the playoff hole, he is eliminatedit is not "one tie, all tie".)

Fred Couples is given the nickname of "Mr. Skins" because of his dominance in the Skins Game. He has won $3,515,000 and 77 skins in 11 appearances. He has won five of the Skins Games overall.

Prize money is awarded as follows:

¹ This is known as a "super skin" The total prize money is exactly $1 million.

Rule change

In 2001, the player winning a hole outright had to tie or win the next hole to collect his skins from the previous hole. This was very tough to do. Greg Norman was the only one that could back up his win on the previous hole. He won the 17th and tied for low on the 18th hole to collect $800,000, the largest skin collected for one hole. He won the $200,000 in a playoff to win the entire $1 million dollar prize money. This rule was rescinded the following year.

Milestones

• 1983: First Skins Game held, with Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer, and Gary Player as the participants. NBC televises the event throughout the U.S. with Vin Scully as the announcer.
• 2001: Only time the validation system was used (see above)
• 1996: Tiger Woods makes the first of three straight appearances in the event. He has never won.

TELUS Skins Game

There is an annual skins game in Canada for male professional golfers which takes place in June or July each year. It is recognized by the PGA Tour but does not count towards the official money list. It is currently sponsored by Telus and is officially known as the Telus World Skins Game, hosted at a different golf course each year within Canada.