"Can't Get Any Prettier Than That"
Lee Trevino wins $175,000 with six-iron shot at the 1987 Skins Game. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Come celebrate a Thanksgiving weekend tradition that returns this year after a 17 year hiatus. You can watch on Prime Video at 9 am, ET, this Friday, November 28, 2025. Climb aboard the Tour Backspin journey through the past as we go back to the 1987 Skins Game featuring Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Fuzzy Zoeller, and Arnold Palmer. Trevino took home the most cash, most of which he won with one swing of his six-iron. Scroll down to learn more.
Psst. We have the leaked opening to The Skins Game that will be broadcast on Friday. Scroll down to check it out. It’s pretty cool.
Congratulations to Sami Valimaki who not only won his first PGA TOUR event, but also became the first PGA TOUR winner from Finland, at the RSM Classic. The win secured him a spot in the first two signature events of 2026. We’ve got some of the highlights in the Clips I Loved.
This Thanksgiving, I am so grateful to you, dear readers of Tour Backspin, and all the support you have shown for this project. Like me, you believe that PGA TOUR history matters. In the next couple of weeks, we will have an announcement on where we would like the Tour Backspin Golf Club to go and how we plan to grow it. Keep an eye out for it.
The Bonus Story exposes some dirty play from CBS Sports, while the Tour Backspin Golf Club Bonus Story (behind the paywall) documents how hard Lee Trevino prepared for the 1987 Skins Game.
Be sure to check out the WHAT HOLE IS IT? this week, it’s a beautiful hole that has ties to the holiday today. If you know it, enter your answer, you might win the random drawing and score some golf merch credit from the Tour Backspin Golf Shop.
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This week’s Tour Backspin Poll wants to know how you finish off your Thanksgiving feast. It’s a “Who Ya Got?” on PIE! How much do you know about The Skins Game? Find out by taking a shot at The Skins Game trivia question in the Tour Backspin Quiz.
This week’s Vintage Ad features Lee Trevino when he was on the TaylorMade staff (below the paywall). Today’s main story explains why Trevino did not carry a TaylorMade staff bag. Scroll down to view.
We’ve also have a fun challenge for members of the Tour Backspin Golf Club behind the paywall.
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“Thank you, Santa Claus!”
On Saturday, November 28th, 1987, millions of sports fans, most from chilly climates, tuned into the NBC Sports broadcast of The Skins Game. Played at PGA West in La Quinta, CA, viewers enjoyed the images of cool, clear, and sunny skies on their television screens.
This was the fifth playing of The Skins Game produced by Don Ohlmeyer, Jr., for NBC. The original idea for the skins format on the PGA TOUR was in 1975 and was funded by a Japanese television production company. The four-man competition included Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, and Tom Watson. The skins competition was played after a three-day match-play tournament with a limited field of 15 players, including nine Americans and six international players. The purse for the match-play event was $117,000, with $25,000 going to the winner.
Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village course hosted the event, which was broadcast in Japan, with a highlight package shown in the United States. The host, Nicklaus, won the match-play portion of the event, defeating Tom Weiskopf, 2 and 1. He added another $3,000 in the skins competition in addition to the guaranteed $20,000 each of the four competitors was paid.
Don Ohlmeyer, of NBC Sports, took the idea of the skins competition and ran with it, turning it into must-watch television on each Thanksgiving weekend starting in 1983. In 1987, millions of golf fans around the country tuned in to see Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, and Fuzzy Zoeller battle it out in the Palm Springs desert at the PGA West Stadium Course. The front nine was broadcast on Saturday, while the competition’s culmination would be broadcast on Sunday.
Both Nicklaus and Zoeller complained of sore backs on Saturday, yet they walked away as the day’s biggest winners, pocketing $70,000 each. Nicklaus got things going by winning a skin on the 1st hole, sinking a 25-foot putt for birdie worth $15,000.
“When that was over, I was totally relaxed from then on,” Nicklaus said after the round.
His second shot at the 2nd hole wound up two feet from the hole for a tap-in birdie. Mics on the players allowed television viewers to eavesdrop on their banter.
“Are you mad, or both?” Trevino asked Nicklaus
“Both,” came the reply, and the two players laughed.
“It went in like I knew what I was doing.”
Zoeller was able to cover the birdie made by Nicklaus at the second hole, but that didn’t take any of the wind out of the Golden Bear’s sails as he birdied the 3rd hole, worth $30,000, with the carryover. Zoeller won the 7th hole, worth $70,000, with the carryovers, with a four-foot birdie putt.
“It went in like I knew what I was doing,” Zoeller said while claiming that he didn’t know how much the putt was worth until after he made it.
Trevino earned his first skin on the 8th hole with a birdie after Palmer failed to make a five-footer that would have tied him. On the next hole, Trevino missed a five-footer for a birdie that would have tied Nicklaus, a gift-wrapped skin worth $25,000. Trevino then skipped the post-round interview session.
Palmer was shut out on the first day and admitted he was feeling the mounting pressure.
“I’ve certainly started thinking about it,” Palmer said. “It would have been nice to get one the first day and then relax a little bit.”
Zoeller felt he was in a good position for the conclusion on Sunday.
“I think my chances are pretty good,” he said. “I’m doing well. I’m putting well and my drives are crisp.”
Nicklaus warned that he couldn’t be overlooked, saying, “I played pretty well,” he said. “I see no reason why I can’t play pretty well tomorrow.”
“Poor Arnie. It would really make everyone happy if he won a skin.”
On Sunday, Trevino made clear that he came to play with a birdie on the 10th hole, the first hole of the day, that won him $25,000. After no one won the 11th hole, Trevino hit his second shot at the 12th to the fringe of the green, 20 feet from the hole. Palmer put his second shot to 15 feet and had visions of winning his first skin. Trevino dashed those hopes when he made his putt, and when Palmer missed his putt, Trevino collected another $50,000.
Palmer had another chance for skin on the 15th hole, but made a horrible putt for the birdie that would have won.
“Poor Arnie,” Vin Scully, who was calling the action on NBC, said. “It would really make everyone happy if he won a skin.”
As the 13th, 14th, and 15th holes were tied, the tension mounted. Zoeller then drilled his second shot into the 16th hole to three feet. Nicklaus answered the challenge by putting his approach shot to 10 feet. After narrowly missing five birdie putts from the 30-foot range on Sunday, Nicklaus was due to make one, and finally, he did at a most critical juncture in the competition. If one of the two players could make the putt, and the other missed, they would be the winner.
This put pressure on Zoeller to make his three-footer for the tie, and Zoeller met the moment, making the putt. The four players headed to the 17th hole with $175,000 on the line.
Trevino had the tee, having won the last skin back on the 12th hole. He pulled a six-iron from his bag, held by his long-time caddie, Herman Mitchell, and in his trademark quick fashion, hit his tee shot that soared up into the bright, sunny, blue sky. The ball landed, bounced once, and then rolled into the hole.
“I didn’t get to see it. I stayed out all night the night before, and I wasn’t seeing too well.”
It took a couple of seconds before Trevino realized what he’d just done. Once he did, he ran over to Mitchell and jumped into the larger man’s arms.
“Thank you, Santa Claus,” Mitchell exclaimed.
Trevino then accepted congratulations from the other players, especially Nicklaus. This was the second ace in Trevino’s career, and he certainly enjoyed this one more than his first at the Pleasant Valley Golf Classic.
“I didn’t get to see it,” he said about his first hole-in-one. “I stayed out all night the night before, and I wasn’t seeing too well.”
“It was the first time in my life I heard him shut up,” Nicklaus later said.
“I knew when I hit it, it would be close, but never in my wildest dreams did I think it was going to go in,” Trevino said.
With the crowd still buzzing from the excitement of the ace, Trevino hit his approach at the 18th and it came to rest 12 feet from the hole. Zoeller hit his approach to 5 feet. Nicklaus and Palmer faced long birdie putts, and they both missed. Trevino then ran in his putt for a birdie while Zoeller missed his short putt, putting another $35,000 into Trevino’s pocket.
“I don’t need a car.”
With his ace at the 17th, Trevino won a Toyota car, and was awarded another Toyota, a Supra, for his skin on the 18th hole. Trevino’s sponsor on the tour was Toyota and included not only a Toyota staff bag, but also vehicles from the company. He hardly needed the two cars he’d just won.
“I get all mine free,” Trevino, who did not skip the Sunday post-round interview session, said to reporters. “I don’t need a car.”
With that single swing resulting in an ace on the 17th hole, Trevino won more than triple the amount of money he had won on the PGA TOUR for the year. He did it during an event that Don Ohlmeyer produced for television, which became a Thanksgiving weekend tradition beginning in 1983. The Skins Game lost relevance once PGA TOUR purses increased dramatically with the ascendance of Tiger Woods. But in 1987, Lee Trevino enjoyed his own huge payday after hitting the most memorable shot in the event’s history.
Check out the leaked 2025 Skins Game opening. Click on image to open player on the web.
WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Congratulations to Ryan Ross, our leader for the year, for winning the WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest last week. Ryan beat out four other correct answers of #13 at Sea Island Golf Club, (Seaside Course), in St. Simons Island, GA, in the random drawing. Ryan will receive a $10 discount code in the Tour Backspin Golf Shop. Check out The Tour Backspin Golf Shop HERE.
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Bonus Story
Brent Musburger Plays The Spoiler
NBC Sports taped the second day of The Skins Game, played on Sunday, November 29th, in 1987 and broadcast it later that day, after the NFL football games had aired. Sunday Night Football was not yet a part of the Sunday NFL package, and The Skins Game would take advantage of the time window at the end of a long Thanksgiving weekend.
Brent Musburger, of CBS Sports, hosted the halftime report show during the games played on that Sunday. During one of the reports, he presented the results of The Skins Game, noting that Lee Trevino won $310,000, including $175,000 for an ace on the 17th hole.
“We simply reported the results of a major sporting event when they were available to us. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
Michael Weisman, NBC Sports’ executive producer, was incensed, accusing CBS of attempting to sabotage The Skins Game by eliminating any suspense in the outcome. He called it, “Very selective journalism.”
CBS spokesman Rick Gentile answered the criticism, saying, “We simply reported the results of a major sporting event when they were available to us. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
NBC Sports gave up the rights to The Skins Game in 1991 when they won the rights to Notre Dame Football. The Skins Game moved to ABC.
Tour Backspin Quiz | The Skins Game Trivia
How many times did Tiger Woods win The Skins Game?
Scroll down for answer
Clips I Loved
This game of ours can be heartbreaking.
Watch for a bounce back year from Doug Ghim.
Highlights from the four players playing in The Skins Game this year.
More Clips I Loved below the paywall.
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
TRICK QUESTION! Tiger never won The Skins Game.
Blind Shot
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MY OPEN TABS
Shane Ryan has an interesting take on the Internet Invitational at GolfDigest.com.
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SOON TO BE A DOCUMENTARY FILM!
What’s behind the paywall for members of the Tour Backspin Golf Club:
Tour Backspin Golf Club Member’s Bonus Story “Trevino’s Preparation for The Skins Game”
More Clips I Loved
TBGC Blind Shot
TBGC Challenge NEW!
Vintage Ad
Final Thoughts
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