The cheating accusation that rocked the Skins Game's debut

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 play a made-for-TV (well, made-for-Amazon Prime) match that sounds way more fun than battling the deal-seeking masses at Target or Best Buy.

There will be laughs and birdies and light-hearted barbs and maybe even some grinding when the stakes get high, but whatever unfolds, the proceedings stand 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, at the time, of a combined 41 major titles. Convening such firepower in the Arizona desert on Thanksgiving weekend couldn't have been easy but surely helping to convince the participants that the schlep to Desert Highlands was worth their time was the staggering purse: $360,000. To put that figure in perspective, consider that the Masters winner that year, Seve Ballesteros, went home with only $90,000 for his trouble.

The tension arose on the beefy 240-yard par-3 16th hole, where $120,000 was on the line. (You can watch the full telecast here.) Palmer played himself out of the mix by knocking his tee shot into the desert; Nicklaus nearly holed a 90-foot birdie putt but left himself 4 feet coming back. And Watson coolly chipped to gimme 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 had witnessed Player remove a rooted leaf from behind his ball, which is not permitted under the rules. Watson didn't raise his concern in the moment, so Player went about his business, and chipped to tap-in range to tie Watson's par. The carry-over made the 17th hole worth 150 grand, which was pocketed by the only player to make birdie - yep, Gary Player.

Watson didn't bite his tongue for long. Soon after the round, he confronted Player on a dirt road by the press tent, in a conversation that was overheard by New York Times sportswriter Dave Anderson and which made its way into the newspaper's Monday morning edition under the tantalizing headline “The Golf Hole Nobody Will Forget.”

‘I’m accusing you, Gary," Watson said, according to Anderson's reporting, "you can’t do that . . . I’m tired of this . . ."

To which Player was heard saying, ”I was within the rules.”

Watson never backed down from his accusation, nor did Player from his own self-defense, later writing of Watson's finger-pointing: “I was staggered. Breaking the rules is, after all, the most heinous charge to be laid against any golfer. When it is aimed at a champion the repercussions can be monumental."

The Skins Game became a staple of golf's Silly Season, with 25 more editions played through 2008. But it’s easy to forget, the event got off to a gravely serious start.

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