O’Meara wins Skins Game

Camera click bothers last-place finisher Woods

? Every now and then, Mark O’Meara can still get the best of Tiger Woods.

Far more frequently, someone with a camera gets to Woods.

O’Meara won the Skins Game for his first victory of any kind in four years. He collected three skins worth $210,000 with a 2-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole, and secured the title Sunday with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th.

“It’s been a while since I won anything,” said O’Meara, whose last victory came in the ’98 Skins Game.

The birdie on the 17th gave O’Meara eight skins and $405,000 in two days, and removed all the suspense from the final hole – a single skin worth $200,000.

No suspense, but plenty of action. Woods needed to get up-and-down for birdie from a back bunker on the par-5 18th to keep Phil Mickelson from capturing the final skin. A man standing directly behind Woods clicked his camera in the middle of his swing, and Woods looked back in disgust as his ball rolled 15 feet by the hole.

“I flinched,” Woods said. “I was lucky to keep the ball on the green.”

An early click cost Woods a chance of going bogey-free over 72 holes when he won the World Golf Championship in Ireland. Woods still had a birdie putt to force a playoff, but the ball slid by on the right, and Mickelson won the $200,000 skin with a two-putt birdie from 30 feet.

Mickelson finished second with three skins and $300,000. Fred Couples wound up with $170,000. Woods was last with $125,000.