Prize money increasing everywhere but Skins Games

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Last year's LG Skins competitors were Stephen Ames (winner), Fred Couples, Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich.

Ten years ago, the LG Skins Game raised its prize money to $1 million for a weekend field that included Greg Norman, Fred Couples, Tom Lehman and double major winner Mark O'Meara.

The average purse on the PGA TOUR that year was $2.18 million.

O'Meara capped off his greatest season with eight skins to capture $430,000. Not only was that the third biggest check of his career (behind the Masters and British Open that season), only eight PGA TOUR events offered a bigger first-place prize.

A decade later, just about everything has changed but the size of the purse for this week's event.

The average PGA TOUR purse is now $5.8 million, and even if one of the four players -- Phil Mickelson, K.J. Choi, Rocco Mediate and defending champion Stephen Ames -- wins all the skins this week, the $1 million would be equivalent to 105th on the TOUR money list.

Imagine if the purse were $3.5 million. They could play $75,000 per skin for the first six holes, $150,000 for the next six holes, $250,000 for the next five holes and a $900,000 skin for the 18th.

"I don't know where it (the money) would come from," said Barry Frank, vice chairman of IMG Media, which produces the LG Skins Game. "Production costs have gone up tremendously. The cost of doing this is enormous. We have a 50-50 partner (ABC Sports). They don't want to raise the purse. It's difficult for us to see it."

Besides, Frank says the four players invited aren't exactly in poverty.

"It still seems if you can win $250,000 for a weekend's work, even for these guys, it's not chopped liver," he said. "You don't have to beat 150 guys to win $1 million as you do in some tournaments."

The 26th LG Skins Game starts on Saturday at Indian Wells, Calif., and it did well to attract Mickelson.

Mickelson is good friends with Mediate, a chatterbox who is a modern-day Lee Trevino minus six majors. And having Choi in the field should go over well with the South Korean-based title sponsor, especially with LG's contract expiring this year.

Mickelson will be playing the Skins Game for the first time since 2003.

"He was interested," Frank said. "He's got a lot of star power, and he'll bring some viewers."

Mickelson says the Skins Game is the only event he plays that he thinks about money standing over a putt.

"One of my best memories of the Skins Game was watching Nicklaus on 18 at Desert Highlands make a putt for $240,000 and throw his putter up in the air," Mickelson said. "I thought that was a pretty cool moment."

That was in 1984. That was almost as much money as he made all year, and it remains the largest check of his golf career.