Couples shows why he’s called ‘King of Skins’

LA QUINTA, Calif. – The “King of the Skins” is up to his old tricks.

Fred Couples, a five-time Skins Game champion, got off to a fine start toward a sixth title Saturday, winning six skins to earn $175,000.

“He played beautiful,” Fred Funk said. “He’s driving the ball great and playing great. That’s why he’s the ‘King of the Skins.’ “

John Daly won one hole, the first, for $25,000. Funk, the defending champion with $925,000 a year ago, and Skins Game rookie Stephen Ames were shut out over the first nine holes of the two-day, 18-hole event.

The 47-year-old Couples has put together quite a career in the Skins Game alone, earning $3,515,000 in 12 previous appearances.

He was pleased with his play, particularly his putting, on the way to six birdies and six skins on opening day this year.

“I’ve butchered a lot of holes (in the past) and had a lot of big skins,” he said. “It’s easier this way.”

He obviously feels relaxed playing in the Skins Game format.

“It’s fun. It’s not challenging,” Couples said. “As you get older, everything gets easier. But it’s not an easy game.

“If we were out there playing the U.S. Open, I don’t know if I would have made six birdies.”

Funk, who wore a pink skirt on the third hole last year after Annika Sorenstam outdrove him, had another wrinkle this time – his caddy replaced Daly’s ball on the sixth green with a remote-control ball.

Funk, the other three players and the fans laughed as the ball lurched backward and forward on the green. Daly laughed, too. Then he missed a birdie putt.

Funk said his son gave him the idea of using the trick ball when he saw it in an airline magazine, so he ordered it.

“My caddie was controlling it,” Funk said of the prank on No. 6. “He had practiced with it. It worked great on linoleum, but it didn’t work too well on the green.”

One of Couple’s birdies won him $75,000 on No. 4, then another gave him a $100,000 jackpot on No. 7.

He hit his 9-iron to 30 feet on the 434-yard, par-4 fourth, then curled his perfectly paced putt into the cup.

After the fifth and sixth holes were tied and the pot built to $100,000 Couples cleared the table when he stuck his 8-iron within 5 feet of the pin on the 444-yard, par-4 seventh and made that putt.

Daly, playing in his third Skins Game but first in a decade, took the first hole with a 2-foot birdie putt, thanks to his sand wedge from 99 yards away.

“That was the only good hole I played,” he said.

Because the last two holes were tied on the first day, that means the first hole on today will be worth $150,000.