Insider: Nicklaus, Watson rise to occasion yet again

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After another win at the Champions Skins, look for Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus to return next year. Lucky us.

The Champions Skins Game came down to a 12-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole at Kaanapali.

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When Tom Watson stepped up to it, he and his partner, Jack Nicklaus, knew what was at stake. Make it, and they would repeat as Skins Game champions with an insurmountable total and only one hole left.

Miss it, and the door would open for one of the remaining three teams to step through, claim the skin and, quite likely, the title.

But history tells us that in these moments, Nicklaus and Watson set the standard. They rise to the occasion again and again.

Watson made the putt. As the ball disappeared into the hole, his partner, standing off to the side, gave it a Nicklausian fist pump. As Watson watched the putt fall, he said, "That's all right for the old guys, eh?"

Yes, it is. But it's also good for the young guys -- those playing alongside the two legends and all those watching on television who may not have seen them in their prime.

It's good for us all because it reminds us that golf is a game for the ages, that the years don't have to be an obstacle. It illustrates that greatness need not have bounds. It reaffirms that there are lessons to be learned by the history of the game.

It's good for the rest of us because it might likely lead to seeing them together again next year at Kaanapali defending their crown and entertaining us with more regal golf.

Of course, any opportunity to see and appreciate Nicklaus, the greatest player of his or any generation, is a treat. He doesn't play much anymore -- or so he says -- and he certainly doesn't compete very often. To see him up-close-and-personal on television, at age 71, is no less compelling than it ever has been.

To set the stage, five skins and the title were on the line. Nicklaus had the tee in the alternate shot competition. With Mark O'Meara's ball already on the green and within birdie range, Nicklaus hit a 6-iron on the par 3 17th hole to within four steps of the hole.

"Jack hit a great shot," said Bernhard Langer, who along with partner O'Meara, finished only $10,000 behind the champions.

"And Tom hit a great putt."

Even for golfers who played against Nicklaus and Watson all those years, and who were all-too-often left in their dust, it was still a treat. The champions gave up nearly three decades in age to their younger challengers -- but nothing in competitive instincts or spirit. The Nicklaus fist pump and the embrace with long-time rival Watson told you that.

O'Meara was making his debut in the Champions Skin Game.

"I enjoyed it," he said. "It's an honor to play with these legends that created a game that I've been fortunate to play for a long time, When I was a young man growing up watching Jack do what he did, and certainly Tom Watson, but now being able to play alongside them is great.

"It's still amazing at 71 that (Jack) is hitting the shots that he is hitting, especially for a guy who says he doesn't play any golf."

Langer was asked if he taught his rookie partner, O'Meara, anything in his first appearance in the Champions Skins Game.

"I don't know if I taught him anything -- he can stand up for himself," Langer said. "But it was a pleasure being with him."

The discoveries might not have come from Langer but it's certain that O'Meara learned a few things along the way. The opportunity to watch Nicklaus and Watson - any time, anywhere -- is a lesson on how the game is supposed to be played at the highest levels.

Champions Tour Insider Notes

• The Champions Tour returns to the mainland next week for the Allianz Championship at The Old Course at Broken Sound in Boca Raton. Bernhard Langer is the defending champion. He holed a bunker shot for an eagle 3 at the first extra hole to win a playoff over John Cook.

• Langer posted 15 top 10 finishes in 23 starts in 2010. His three-year record: 44 top 10s in 63 tournaments for a rousing 70 percent. That's worthy of the unprecedented three straight Player of the Year awards earned by Langer.

• For the first time at Kaanapali, all four teams earned money in the Champions Skins Game. Previously, all four teams earned money in the 2007 event at Wailea Golf Club on Maui.

• Kenny Perry teed it up at the Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA TOUR last week. He missed the cut (75-76).

Champions Tour Insider Vartan Kupelian is a freelance contributor for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.