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Norman sweeps Skins Game
With one big birdie putt and one routine par, Greg Norman managed to recapture
a bit of his old magic in the Skins Game. He played well, entertained fans and
earned a cool $1 million.
Perhaps more importantly, he beat Tiger Woods.
Sure, it may have been a made-for-television event and only lasted 18 holes.
But it brought back memories of times when the 46-year-old Norman dominated.
``It's not that you want Tiger's scalp on the mantel,'' Norman said. ``It's
just that he's the best player in the world and you want to beat the best player
in the world. I know that feeling well.''
Norman's birdie putt on the 17th hole put him in position to be the big winner
in the annual Thanksgiving weekend event, and he followed it with a two-putt par
on the 18th hole to win his first $800,000.
Two extra holes later, he pocketed another $200,000, and sent Woods, Colin
Montgomerie and Jesper Parnevik home empty-handed.
``Any win is a great win, whether it's a Skins Game or a regular tournament,''
said Norman, whose last win came in the 1998 Greg Norman Holden International
in Australia. ``It's very satisfying to do it. Whenever you beat the caliber of
players like that, it's good.''
Norman took $730,000 out of Parnevik's pocket with his 10-footer for birdie
on 17, and added a birdie on the second playoff hole to sweep all the money.
It was both the biggest single-hole payout and the biggest overall win in the
19-year history of the Skins Game.
Norman, after making a birdie on the 17th hole to win all the previous skins,
needed only to par the 18th to become the big winner. That was because a new rule
forced a player to at least tie for low score on the next hole after winning a
skin.
He did it with a conservative sand shot and two putts that allowed him to cash
in 17 skins worth $800,000.
``I've never had to make a par for $800,000 in my life,'' Norman said. ``It
was hard trying to figure it out.''
Parnevik also was trying to figure it out after Norman's birdie putt on 17
took away the $730,000 worth of skins he could have won if he had tied for low
score on the hole.
Instead, he made par, and made Norman the big winner.
``Greg came and stole it from me on 17,'' Parnevik said. ``That hurt a little
bit.''
Woods, meanwhile, didn't make a birdie on the back nine on a cool, breezy morning
and was shut out. Woods then was eliminated from the playoff when he failed to
make birdie on the first extra hole.
``To walk away with no skins isn't exactly a good feeling,'' Woods said.
Woods had a fleeting chance to deny Norman his skins, but his 4-iron second
shot on the 18th hole rode the wind all the way into the water short of the green.
``I'm disappointed I didn't give myself a chance on the last hole,'' Woods
said.
Norman predicted after the front nine Saturday that all the skins could be in
play on the 18th hole, and he was right after a back nine where six holes were
played before Parnevik won his skin with a 20-footer for birdie on No. 16.
Norman needed to tie for low score on 18 to cash in his $800,000 worth of skins,
and his job was made much easier after Woods and Montgomerie both put their second
shots in the water on the par-5 finishing hole and Parnevik hit the lip of a fairway
bunker and was well short of the green.
Norman hit an iron into the right greenside bunker and was faced with a long
sand shot toward a pin with water just behind it. Instead of risking it all, Norman
played his shot well short of the pin, then putted to four feet before making
his putt for par.
Montgomerie parred the hole out of the water, meaning the players went to extra
holes to settle the final skin.
The new rule was supposed to build suspense as money grew because players couldn't
follow up a winning skin on the next hole. But it wasn't needed from the sixth
hole Saturday to the 15th on Sunday, a span of 10 holes where no one even won
a skin.
Parnevik broke that string on the 16th hole, and Norman won it back on the
next.
The course was set up so viewers could see birdies. On the stretch of five
holes beginning on No. 12, there was no hole over 388 yards and two of the par-4s
were within driving distance.
But there were only two birdies on those holes -- both at the 300-yard 14th
-- before Parnevik sunk his 20-footer on 16 for the first skin of since the fifth
hole a day earlier.
Woods, who signed a television deal to appear in four Skins Games over five
years, was supposed to boost ratings and galleries with his presence. He may have,
but his game was nothing more than ordinary, as he plodded along with nothing
but pars on the back nine before the 18th hole.
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