Insider: Skinner on right course for Champions debut
By Vartan Kupelian, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
Sonny Skinner has history on his side this week at the SAS Championship.
The longtime club professional from Albany, Ga., is making his Champions Tour debut at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, N.C. He made it into the field the hard way, through pre-qualifying and qualifying.
Now that he's in the field, Skinner is "as just as excited as can be."
"You look toward to this date and hope you can achieve it," said Skinner, who celebrated his 50th birthday on Aug. 18. "Just get into the field. You look forward to that for a long time."
Skinner knows that the SAS Championship has been hospitable to Champions Tour first-timers. Twice in the last three years, a golfer making his Champions Tour debut has won at Prestonwood.
Tom Pernice Jr. announced his arrival last year with a 1-stroke victory when he made a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th green of the final round.
In 2007, Mark Wiebe became the 12th player in Champions Tour history to win his debut. Wiebe became the first player to win on a sponsor's exemption when he closed with a 5-under 67 for a 3-shot victory.
Skinner pre-qualified for the SAS Championship by shooting 67, then backed it up with a 65 in the qualifier.
"Every stage gets a little more difficult," he said. "Having to do the pre-qualifier was more difficult than I thought. Then I shoot 65 and I'm the low man and coming to Prestonwood."
Skinner has some personal history with Prestonwood, too, where he played in a few Nationwide Tour events back in the 1990s.
"The course has changed some since then but it's still sort of familiar territory," he said.
As a popular and successful competitor at the club professional level and various tours, including the PGA TOUR, Skinner has familiarity with a lot of courses and a lot of the players he's encountering this week at the SAS Championship.
"The last few years I played a limited schedule on the Nationwide Tour," he said. "The guys are so young. I was the oldest player every time I teed it up. It feels good to be one of the youngest, if not the youngest."
The flip side is that every time Skinner turns around, he spots somebody special.
"These guys are so talented -- Hall of Famers, major championship winners, guys who kicked everybody's butt in the world of golf the past 30 years," Skinner said. "The next phase is even tougher than just getting to this point.
"I'm certainly capable of playing fine golf. If the putter is hot, I can shoot some low numbers. I'm tickled to death."
When Skinner left River Pointe, his club in Albany where he is the teaching professional, he wasn't quite sure how long he'd be away. By qualifying, the hiatus grew by at least a week.
"The folks back at River Point are excited," Skinner said. "I'll be gone another week but they're fine with it. They like the idea I can get out and compete and they get to pull for me."
Skinner was runner-up at the 2008 PGA Professional National Championship and twice a winner on the Nationwide Tour -- at the 1993 Shreveport Open and the 1994 Richmond Open. He qualified four times through the PGA TOUR Q-School (1990, 1992, 1997, 1998).
He played in his first major championship at the 2008 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club and again this year at Whistling Straits.
"Having played as long as I have -- I've been a pro since 1982 -- and I didn't get into a major until I was 48, that was kind of cool when it finally did happen," Skinner said.
His other highlights include those successes at Q-School and his memorable first round at the Buick Open in 1997. Skinner shot 10-under 62 in the opening round at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club.
"Tiger was there," Skinner said. "I beat him by 10 strokes. But he was still learning at that point."
Skinner is delighted with the state of his putting as he embarks on the newest phase of his career.
"That's kind of ironic," he said. "Throughout my career, putting was never my strength. I've discovered something with my putting the last 1˝ years."
Skinner is keeping the secret to himself.
"I don't want to let the cat out of the bag," he said. "Everyone of us has our own little things we're trying to overcome. I seem to have got something in the back of my mind that's working for me -- and I'm going to keep it there, back of my mind."
In other words, he's not going to tempt the fates by thinking he owns the secret because he knows that in golf, the secret is never owned, only borrowed.
Skinner describes himself as someone who has always been a goal-setter.
"I like having specific things in a direction to go in," he said. "Of course, you have to set your goals pretty high because the competition does. You have to plan to win, prepare to win ... and work in that direction."
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