After Collecting 15 Skins and $925,000 in 2005, Funk Leads Field For Popular Thanksgiving Weekend Event – November 25-26, 2006
LA QUINTA, CA — A fun-loving guy with a serious golf game, Fred Funk was in vintage form in his LG SKINS GAME debut last year. After pulling in the laughs from his fellow competitors and the crowd during play at Trilogy Golf Club, he awed the gallery in taking the last 15 skins and $925,000 from the No. 1 male and female players in the world – Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam. Clearly, Funk will not challenge the newest trio of competitors at the 2006 LG SKINS GAME in a long-driving contest, but the onus is on Fred Couples, John Daly and Stephen Ames to end Funk’s championship reign.
Fan favorites Couples and Daly, along with 2006 THE PLAYERS Championship winner Ames, will compete with Funk at the 2006 LG SKINS GAME, Nov. 25-26, at the Trilogy Golf Club in La Quinta, CA. The quartet will compete for $1 million in prize money in the unique "skins game" format. As is customary, Funk, Couples, Daly and Ames will donate 20 percent of their winnings ($200,000) to their favorite charities.
Along with announcing the field for the 2006 LG SKINS GAME, LG Electronics is launching a comprehensive new web site (www.LGSkinsGame.com) as the official Internet home of the LG SKINS GAME. Once completed, the site will feature facts, figures and full-on information about the LG SKINS GAME.
In its 24th year, the LG SKINS GAME has established itself as a Thanksgiving weekend staple for sports enthusiasts and is the standard by which all second-season golf events are measured. ABC Sports will televise the $1 million LG SKINS GAME, a joint venture of ESPN Regional Television, Inc., and IMG Media. Annually, it is one of the highest rated golf telecasts and will be televised on Saturday, Nov. 25 and Sunday, Nov. 26 from 3:30-6 p.m. (ET).
LG Electronics Inc., one of the world’s leading electronics companies, announced a three-year agreement to become the title sponsor of the SKINS GAME in May. The LG SKINS GAME returns to Trilogy Golf Club in La Quinta for the fourth consecutive year.
Funk’s 2005 victory was the second-largest payday of his career as the LG SKINS GAME annually provides for one of the richest two-day payoffs in golf. Funk set a LG SKINS GAME record for most skins and money won when the event hasn’t used the validation format; Greg Norman won all 18 skins and the entire $1 million purse in 2001 when validation rules applied to the event.
The oldest player to become champion of the LG SKINS GAME, Funk made $225,000 on the first day in the 2005 event with a 28-foot eagle putt on No. 9. He then highlighted his title with a $550,000 birdie on No. 18, bringing his second-day total earnings to $700,000.
In the LG SKINS GAME format, players compete for money for each hole rather than low score for the round. A player must win a hole outright to win a skin. If a hole is tied, the skin(s) and money carries over to the next hole. Each of the first six holes (one through six) will be worth $25,000. Each of the second six holes (seven through 12) will be worth $50,000. Holes 13 through 17 will each be worth $70,000, and the 18th hole, the LG Super Skin, will be worth $200,000. The foursome will play for $300,000 on Saturday and $700,000 on Sunday.
Trilogy Golf Club at La Quinta is located at the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains in La Quinta, CA. It is the centerpiece of Trilogy at La Quinta, a community built by Shea Homes Inc., America’s largest private homebuilder. The course, designed by architect Gary Panks, lends itself to the natural terrain and sweeping views overlooking the Coachella Valley. The par-72 course opened to public play in February 2003.
Contestants
Fred Funk, 50, known as one of the most popular players on Tour for his fun-loving, accessible personality, is the oldest winner in the history of the LG SKINS GAME after his 2005 debut featured Funk taking away the last 15 skins and $925,000. Those rank as the second highest totals in a single LG SKINS GAME. He won an event- record $225,000 on Saturday and all $700,000 available on Sunday, including $550,000 on the 18th hole, to rank fourth on the event’s all-time money list. Funk made Tour history in March 2005 when he became the oldest winner of THE PLAYERS Championship, collecting his seventh title on tour and a five-year exemption that will keep Funk on Tour until he’s 54. In 2006, Funk was runner-up at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and ranks 43rd on the PGA TOUR money list ($1,404,472). Funk turned 50 on June 14 and has debuted on the Champions Tour – he placed 11th at the U.S. Senior Open and the Ford Senior Players Championship.
Fred Couples, 46, is the most prolific player in LG SKINS GAME history entering his 13th year in the event, a feat unmatched by anyone. With his victory in 2004, Couples earned his fifth title and second consecutive championship. Couples holds the records for Most Career Skins Won (77), Most Career Skins Money ($3,515,000) and most birdies in one year (nine in 1999). Besides his 15 PGA TOUR titles, Couples, the 1992 Masters champion, owns 34 victories worldwide. In 2006, Couples finished in a tie for third at the Masters, fourth at the Nissan Open and has earned $780,361 on the PGA TOUR, good for 88th on the money list. Couples is a veteran of five Ryder Cups, four President Cups, four Dunhill Cups and four World Cups.
John Daly, 40, is the long-hitting fan favorite and a two-time participant in the LG SKINS GAME – he finished with seven skins and $160,000 in his 1991 debut and recorded no skins in 1996. He has five PGA Tour titles to his credit, including the 1991 PGA Championship and the 1995 British Open. Daly, the 1991 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year, last won at the 2004 Buick Invitational though he recorded runner-up results in 2005 at the WGC-American Express Championship and the Shell Houston Open, losing playoffs to Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh, respectively. Daly ranks sixth in driving distance on TOUR this year with an average of 306 yards/drive; his longest drive measured 397 yards.
Stephen Ames, 42, the first touring professional to come out of Trinidad and Tobago, will make his LG SKINS GAME debut this year after winning THE PLAYERS Championship in convincing fashion, winning by six shots. His other PGA TOUR title came at the 2004 Cialis Western Open. Ames has already matched his three top-10 finishes from last year in 2006 with his victory, a fourth-place finish at the Bank of America Colonial and a seventh at The Honda Classic. He ranks 14th on the PGA TOUR money list ($2,395,155). He almost recorded a fourth top-10 in 2006 by finishing tied for 11th in his second Masters Tournament. A resident of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Ames is not a stranger to the skins format, having won the Canadian Skins Game in 2005.
Tickets and further information
Tickets for the LG SKINS GAME, as well as corporate entertainment packages and hospitality tents, are available by calling the tournament office at (760) 771-0707 or (866) SKINTIX (754-6849). Tickets also are available on the Trilogy website at www.trilogylife.com.
LG Electronics USA, Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics Inc., a $45-billion global force in consumer electronics and mobile communications. In the United States, LG Electronics sells a wide range of digital display and digital media products, digital appliances and mobile phones under the company’s Life’s Good" marketing theme. For more information, please visit www.LGusa.com.
ESPN Regional Television (ERT) is the nation’s largest producer and distributor of collegiate sports programming, producing over 900 sporting events per year. In addition to event sponsorship, ERT produces 400 events for national, regional and local networks, serves as the exclusive syndication rights-holder for college conferences (Big 12, Big Ten, BIG EAST, Conference USA, and WAC), exclusive marketing rights-holder for select schools (Kansas, Oregon, South Florida), owners and operators of five collegiate post season Bowl Games (Hawaii, Las Vegas, Fort Worth, New Mexico and Birmingham), the ESPN National Golf Challenge and numerous basketball events nationally.
IMG is the world’s premier Sports, Entertainment and Media Company. IMG is a diversified global business with two major business segments: IMG Sports & Entertainment, and IMG Media. IMG employs over 2,300 people in 30 countries. Forstmann Little & Co. purchased IMG in 2004. IMG Sports & Entertainment includes: consulting services; event ownership and management; fashion events and models representation; licensing; golf course design; client representation in golf, tennis, broadcasting, European football, rugby, cricket, motorsports, coaching, Olympic sports and action sports. In addition, IMG Academies are the world’s largest and most advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport training and educational facility, delivering world-class sports training experiences to over 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult and professional athletes each year. IMG Media, which includes our content production subsidiaries TWI and Darlow Smithson Productions, is recognized as a global leader in the delivery of traditional and new media content and services, with Internet, broadband and mobile expertise, transforming how audiences access and interact with content. IMG Media produces and distributes over 9,000 hours of sports, documentary, docu-drama, entertainment, and popular factual content annually, over multiple platforms across 200 countries, including award-winning television and radio programming. It also represents the broadcast rights to many of the world’s premier sporting events and has the world’s biggest sports archive with more than 200,000 hours of footage.
More information about IMG is available at www.imgworld.com and www.darlowsmithson.com
Trilogy is a member of the J.F. Shea family of companies. Over the past century, the J. F. Shea family of companies has accomplished many extraordinary milestones including completing work on the foundation of the landmark Golden Gate Bridge, working on San Francisco Bay Area’s Rapid Transit System (BART) and serving as a managing partner for the construction of the Hoover Dam. Yet, our most satisfying achievements continue to revolve around listening to our customer’s needs and satisfying those needs by providing an extensive selection of new home floor plans and quality workmanship in the finest neighborhoods and communities available today. For more information please visit our website at www.sheahomes.com.
Contact:
Steve Brener/Brian Robin/Damian Secore
Brener Zwikel & Associates, Inc.
(818) 344-6195
Ext. 103/110/114
Nate Smeltz
ESPN/ABC Sports
(860) 766-4550
nate.smeltz@espn.com
John Taylor
LG Electronics
(847) 941-8181
jtaylor@lge.com