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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, January 19, 2009

Zoeller teams with Crenshaw for Skins win

By JAYMES SONG
Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Fuzzy Zoeller, left, can thank new partner Ben Crenshaw for helping him defend his Champions Skins Game title.

ED KAGEYAMA | Ka'anapali Golf Resort via AP

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KA'ANAPALI, Maui — Ben Crenshaw set them up and Fuzzy Zoeller knocked them down.

Zoeller defended his Champions Skins Game title with his new partner by taking a dozen skins and $500,000 on the back nine yesterday to beat first-day leaders Greg Norman and Jay Haas.

Zoeller-Crenshaw finished the alternate-shot, made-for-TV event with 13 skins worth a record $530,000, surpassing the $510,000 earned by Raymond Floyd and Dana Quigley three years ago at Wailea. Norman and Haas, who began the day with three skins and $90,000, added to their total with a par on the second playoff hole for the 18th-hole "superskin" worth $100,000.

The international duo of 73-year-old Gary Player and Champions Tour player and rookie of the year Bernhard Langer finished with one skin worth $50,000, while Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson were shut out.

It was the first time Nicklaus, making his 19th appearance, was blanked since 1998. Watson is going home empty handed for the first time in seven trips.

On a postcard, 82-degree day, no one was hotter than Zoeller and Crenshaw, a late replacement for injured Peter Jacobsen.

"It's an honor to be picked with the defending champion," Crenshaw said. "I feel like I owe quite a lot to Peter Jacobsen."

"And he'll get nothing," Zoeller added.

The 57-year-old Zoeller, who won the Masters 30 years ago, made two birdie putts within 5 feet on Nos. 12 and 17 to win a half-million dollars in a span of six holes.

The big-money hole was the 421-yard 12th, where Crenshaw hit a gap wedge from 94 yards to 5 feet. After the other three teams missed their birdie tries, Zoeller calmly walked up and eyed his try with eight skins — five carried over from the first day — worth $300,000 on the line.

Zoeller, cracking one-liners all day, dropped the putt and raised his arms in the air, as a gallery packed four deep around the green roared. The clutch putt even drew hugs and handshakes from his opponents.

"Hell, if I had known that putt was worth $300,000, I would still be wiping myself right now," Zoeller said. "I didn't have a clue how much that putt was worth. ... We were just concentrating on getting a skin."