Skins game (golf). Origin?

[Fred Shapiro]

Here's the earliest Nexis cite.  As is usually true in etymological
research (so very different from the much more popular game of
etymological conjecture), there is no explanation of why the name arose:

1983 _Wash. Post_ 15 Aug.  Okay weekend duffers . . . Don Ohlmeyer has
signed up a quintet of great golfers for NBC Sports who will play 18 holes
on Dec. 10 and 11 in Scottsdale, Ariz., for a $360,000 pot . . . Just how
the network is going to squeeze in the final holes on an NFL game day is
still being figured out in New York . . . What makes the match different
from the usual TV golf format is that the winner on each of the first six
holes will pocket $10,000 . . . which goes up to $20,000 for the next six
holes and $30,000 a hole for the final six . . . Since ties will carry
over to the next hole . . . it's just possible that all five golfers could
be teeing off at 18 for a $360,000 payday . . . Arnold Palmer, Jack
Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino (I'd watch that one) and Isao Aoki will
participate in "The Skins Game" . . . to be produced for NBC by Ohlmeyer
Communications and Transworld International . . .

Fred Shapiro

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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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