LG SKINS GAME

LA QUINTA, CA - Fred Couples, who has played in more MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAMES (10), won more money ($2,875,000) and more skins (66) than anyone in the 21-year history of the event, will be challenged this year by six-time PGA TOUR Player of the Year Tiger Woods, seven-time LPGA Player of the Year Annika Sorenstam, and Australia's Adam Scott, one of golf's fastest-rising young stars. The four will compete in the popular Thanksgiving weekend event at the Trilogy Golf Club in La Quinta, CA., Nov. 27 - 28.

ABC Sports will televise the $1 million MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME, a joint venture of ESPN Regional Television, Inc., and Trans World International (TWI), for the 14th year. The 22nd edition of the event, annually one of the highest-rated golf telecasts, will be televised Saturday, Nov. 27 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. (ET) and Sunday, Nov. 28 from 3:30 to 6 p.m. (ET). Mike Tirico will be the lead announcer in the booth with analyst Ian Baker-Finch. Andy North will be the course reporter.

The $1 million purse makes the MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME one of the richest two-day events in the history of golf. Each of the first six holes will be worth $25,000. Each of the second six holes will be worth $50,000. Nos. 13 through 17 will each be worth $70,000, and the 18th hole, the Merrill Lynch Super Skin, will be worth $200,000.  The foursome will play for $300,000 on Saturday and $700,000 on Sunday.

All four players have agreed to donate 20 percent of their winnings ($200,000) out of the
$1 million purse to their favorite charities. Trilogy at La Quinta will donate all net proceeds to various Coachella Valley charities, including the YMCA and the Debbie Chism Foundation. These funds will be supplemented by a $40,000 donation from the JF Shea Foundation.

In the past, this policy has ensured plenty of benefits for Couples' designated charities. The winner of the 1992 Masters and 15 PGA TOUR events, Couples is the most prolific player in MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME history. With his victory last year, Couples earned not only his fourth title, but vaulted past Jack Nicklaus for most MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME appearances with 10.

Couples, the all-time money winner in the MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME, earned his victory by sinking nearly 100 feet worth of putts on Sunday last year, then held off Phil Mickelson in a thrilling, four-hole playoff to earn $605,000 and his fourth MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME title.

Besides his victories in 1995, 1996, 1999 and last year, Couples also finished second in 1992, 1993 and 1994. He was third in 1998 and 2002 and fourth in 2000 and has never come away without winning at least three skins. Last year, Couples pulled off another Sunday surge, capturing seven skins and $580,000 on the final 13 holes: Sunday's nine, plus the four-hole playoff with Mickelson.

His winning total of $605,000 was the third greatest in MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME history. Greg Norman won $1 million in 2001, the only year a validation rule was used, and Couples earned $635,000 in 1999.

Besides his 15 TOUR titles, which includes the 1984 and 1986 Players Championships, Couples owns 34 victories worldwide. He has enjoyed a fine 2004, with $1,396,109 in season earnings.

After a one-year absence, Woods returns to the MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME, a format he competed at in 1996-97 and 2001-02. He tied for third in both 1996 (two skins/$40,000) and 1997 (three skins/$60,000) and earned his largest MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME payday in 2002, when he won three skins and $125,000.

Already one of the most decorated golfers in history, Woods owns 40 PGA TOUR victories and 15 other titles worldwide. Included in that total are eight majors and eight World Golf Championship events, the last coming in this year's Accenture' Match Play Championship, when Woods came from behind to dispatch Davis Love III.

Along with Jack Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Gary Player, Woods is one of five golfers to win the career grand slam. His five victories in 18 events last season marked the fifth consecutive season he led the TOUR in victories and earned him his fifth consecutive PGA TOUR Player of the Year award. This year, while undergoing some swing changes, Woods finished fourth on the money list with $5,365,472.

After a whirlwind 2003, one in which she made history on a number of fronts, including becoming the first LPGA player invited to play in the MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME, Sorenstam hasn't missed a beat in 2004. Her season-high seven victories include her seventh major - the LPGA Championship - and also moved her career victory total to 55 to tie Betsy Rawls for fifth place on the all-time LPGA winners list.

Sorenstam recently won the Mizuno Classic in Japan to wrap up her seventh LPGA Rolex Player of the Year award. Currently, Sorenstam is in her customary spot atop the LPGA money list ($2,329,707) and also leads the LPGA in stroke average (68.69) and greens in regulation (74.8%).

In 2003, Sorenstam stole the spotlight on the first day of the MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME, holing out a 39-yard bunker shot for eagle on the ninth hole to win four skins and $175,000. She wasted little time padding that total on Sunday, draining a 12-foot birdie putt for $50,000. Sorenstam's five skins at $225,000 was good enough for second place in 2003 and 19th place on the career MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME money list.

One of the youngest players in MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME history, the 24-year-old Scott wasted little time showing he can overwhelm a course - a MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME factor that has to be taken into account by his fellow players. In two of his three career victories, all garnered in a six-month span, Scott has fired course-record 62s.

The first came at the inaugural Deutsche Bank Championship last September, which sparked the then 23-year-old to his first career victory and made him the youngest PGA TOUR champion since Sergio Garcia won the Bank of America Colonial at age 20. The second came at this year's Booz Allen Classic, when Scott set the Tournament Players Club at Avenel course record and fired a tournament-record 21-under-par 263.

In between those victories, Scott became the youngest golfer to win THE PLAYERS Championship, when he drained a clutch, 10-foot bogey putt to win $1.44 million, the largest check in the history of the PGA TOUR. This season, the young Australian has seven top-10 finishes and $3,724,984in earnings to finish seventh on the PGA  TOUR money list. He is currently the No. 11-ranked player in the world.

For the second consecutive year, Trilogy Golf Club at La Quinta will be the host for the MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME. This is the seventh home in the 21-year history of the MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME.

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.

Tickets for the MERRILL LYNCH 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.

Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) is one of the world's leading financial management and advisory companies, with offices in 35 countries and total client assets of approximately $1.5 trillion. As an investment bank, it is a leading global underwriter of debt and equity securities and strategic advisor to corporations, governments, institutions and individuals worldwide. Through Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, the company is one of the world's largest managers of financial assets.  Firmwide assets under management total $478 billion.  For more information on Merrill Lynch, please visit www.ml.com.

ESPN Regional Television (ERT) is the nation's largest producer and distributor of collegiate sports programming, producing more than 550 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, Mountain West and WAC) and exclusive marketing rights-holder for select schools (Kansas, Oregon, UNLV, TCU, UAB, South Florida and Iowa State). In recent years, ESPN, Inc. has created or acquired events it owns markets and televises to increase its value to advertisers and affiliates. 

International Management Group (IMG) literally "invented" sports management and marketing more than three decades ago. Today the company is the global leader in the field. From this foundation, their expertise and resources have enabled IMG to become a major force in other entertainment, lifestyle and cultural activities. The current diversity of their endeavors reflects the measure of their success. IMG now represents athletes, performing artists, writers, fashion models, and broadcasters, leading corporations, world-class events, cultural institutions and recreational resorts. All share with IMG one defining characteristic: a mission to excel.

IMG's Trans World International subsidiary, TWI, is the largest independent source and distributor of television sports programming with over 4,000 hours of programming produced and packaged annually for network broadcasts. From Wimbledon and the British Open to the sports news coverage around the globe, TWI delivers sports television and events to millions worldwide. Over the course of its history, TWI has developed the largest, most comprehensive global sports archive library and maintains important archive partnerships with major sports organizations.

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, Shea's 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 the company's website at www.sheahomes.com.

For more information on this year's MERRILL LYNCH SKINS GAME, please visit www.trilogylife.com.