Stephen Ames chuckled about his mostly mediocre 18 holes of golf. He can laugh all the way to the bank.
With $650,000 at stake on No. 18, Ames coolly sank a 7-foot birdie putt Sunday to win the Skins Game in Indian Wells, Calif. The only other hole he won was the first, a day earlier.
“That’s the nature of the Skins Game,” Ames said. “It’s always been the way you play at the Skins Game. You kind of let the other guys beat themselves up, and then you sneak in there when you need to.”
Taking the title for the second straight year, Ames finished with nine skins and $675,000 of the $1 million purse.
Five-time champion Fred Couples, playing in the 25-year-old tournament for the 14th time, also won nine skins, pocketing $325,000 to push his career earnings to more than $4.2 million.
“Somebody’s going to birdie the 18th hole, probably, and Stephen did it to win a big, big, big skin,” Couples said. “If you win the right holes, you win money.”
Couples won three skins and $75,000 on the first day, then picked up $250,000 with a 5-footer for birdie on No. 10 to begin the second day.
Masters champion Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich, making their Skins Game debuts, were shut out.
Scotland wins in playoff. Colin Montgomerie and Marc Warren gave Scotland its first victory in the World Cup, beating the United States’ Boo Weekley and Heath Slocum with a par on the third hole of a playoff in Shenzhen, China.
The victory made up for Scotland’s loss last year in Barbados on the first hole of a playoff with Germany’s Bernhard Langer and Marcel Siem.
A par on the third extra hole was good enough for the Scots when Weekley missed a 15-foot putt for par after Montgomerie tapped in.
Scotland shot a 6-under-par 66 and the Americans had a 67 to finish regulation at 25-under 263. France’s Gregory Havret and Raphael Jacquelin had a 67 to finish a stroke back. England’s Ian Poulter and Justin Rose also had a 67 to place fourth at 23-under.
Baddeley prevails. Australia’s Aaron Baddeley outlasted Sweden’s Daniel Chopra to win the Australian Masters in Melbourne, saving par on the fourth hole of a playoff.
