The accusation of cheating that rocked the debut of the Skins Game

The Skins game is . . . back!

On Friday morning, Xander Schauffele, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Keegan Bradley will descend on one of South Florida’s newest playgrounds for the ultra-wealthy – Panther National – to take on a TV match (well, made for Amazon Prime) that sounds a lot more fun than battling the deal-seeking masses at Target or Best Buy.

There will be laughs, birdies and light-hearted barbs and maybe even some crunching as the stakes get high, but whatever unfolds, the proceedings have little chance of matching the heat produced by the closing moments of the inaugural Skins Game in 1983.

The event’s debut brought together four of the all-time greats: Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Tom Watson, winners of a total of 41 major titles at the time. Mustering such firepower in the Arizona desert over Thanksgiving weekend couldn’t have been easy, but it certainly convinced participants that the trek to the Desert Highlands was worth their time: a staggering $360,000. To put that figure into perspective, consider that year’s Masters winner, Seve Ballesteros, took home just $90,000 for his efforts.

The tension arose on the 240-yard par-3 16th hole, where $120,000 was on the line. (You can watch the full broadcast here.) Palmer played himself out of the mix by hitting his tee shot into the desert; Nicklaus nearly holed a 100-foot birdie putt, but left himself four feet behind. And Watson chipped coolly to give me range for an easy par.

Then it was Player’s turn, and this is where things got murky.

At some point before Player played his chip from pin-high right of the green, Watson said he witnessed Player removing a rooted leaf from behind his ball, which is not allowed under the rules. Watson didn’t voice his concerns at the time, so Player went about his business and chipped into tap-in range to level Watson’s par. The transfer made the 17th hole worth $150,000, which was pocketed by the only player to birdie – yes, Gary Player.

Watson didn’t bite his tongue for long. Shortly after the round, he confronted Player on a dirt road near the press tent, in a conversation that was overheard by him New York Times sports journalist Dave Anderson and which found its way into the Monday morning edition of the newspaper under the tantalizing headline “The golf hole that no one will forget.”

“I accuse you, Gary,” Watson said, according to Anderson’s reporting, “of not being able to do that. . . I’m tired of this. . .”

To which the player said, “I complied with the rules.”

Watson never backed down from his accusation, nor did Player from his own self-defense. He later wrote of Watson’s finger-pointing: “I was stunned. After all, breaking the rules is the most heinous accusation that can be made against a golfer. When it is aimed at a champion, the consequences can be dire.”