By Doug Ferguson
The Associated Press

INDIO, Calif. - Mark O'Meara has a history of raising his game whenever he gets around the best players.

That was the case when he hooked up with the new kid on tour - Tiger Woods - and became his constant practice partner. At age 41, O'Meara became the oldest man to win two majors in one season when he captured the Masters and British Open in 1998.

"His friendship has been tremendous," O'Meara said. "He's kicked me in the butt a few times, convinced me that I could still play at a high level. Maybe those two majors I won might not have come along if not for Tiger."

That was the case Sunday in the Skins Game, when O'Meara emerged the winner in a four-man field that included the top two players in golf - Woods and Phil Mickelson.

O'Meara beat them, along with Fred Couples, with one timely swing to collect three skins worth $210,000, and with a 20-foot birdie putt for a skin on the 17th hole that secured his second Skins Game title.

"The Skins Game is anybody's game when you hit the right shots and make the right putts," O'Meara said.

There was a little more to it than that.

O'Meara finished with eight skins worth $405,000, and his nine birdies over two days at Landmark Golf Club tied the Skins Game record set by Couples in 1999.

O'Meara felt plenty of pressure, even though he was playing for free money. He got into the Conagra Foods Skins Game primarily through his relationship with Toyota, one of the tournament sponsors.

It was important to prove he belonged.

"Not for one minute am I not nervous trying to perform at a respectable level," O'Meara said. "Golf is a fickle game, a humbling game. To come here and make nine birdies and make some key putts against these guys was good. They're not going to lie down."

Mickelson was the runner-up, despite winning only two of the 18 holes. He finished with three skins and $300,000.

Lefty picked up the $200,000 of that on the final hole with a two-putt birdie, a skin made possible when a camera clicked during Woods' swing from a greenside bunker.

The ball rolled 15 feet by the cup, and Woods looked back in disgust. The hit-and-giggle event turned more serious - albeit briefly - when caddie Steve Williams took the camera away and dropped it in the lake.

"I flinched," Woods said of his bunker shot. "I was lucky to keep the ball on the green."

His birdie putt to tie Mickelson and go to a playoff for the $200,000 skin grazed by the right edge of the putt, allowing Lefty to get his wish.

"Wouldn't it be cool if we all won a skin?" he said to Woods as they walked to the tee on the par-5 18th hole.

Couples hit the ball great Sunday, but his belly-putter let him down. He won only two skins and finished third with $170,000. Woods was last with $125,000, all four of his skins coming on the earlier - and cheaper - holes.

"That's better than I usually do," Woods said. In three previous appearances in the Skins Game, he won five skins combined.

The day belonged to O'Meara.

True, he won six skins off two holes - both par 3s. But there were other solid shots, such as his wedge into 4 inches for a skin on the 12th hole.

That's where it got interesting.

Woods missed an 8-foot birdie on the 13th. O'Meara and Mickelson each made short birdies on the 14th, making the peninsula-green 15th hole worth three skins and $210,000.

O'Meara hit 6-iron into 2 feet, and when Couples missed his 10-footer for birdie, O'Meara tapped in for the big payoff.

He clinched the title two holes later by rolling in a 20-foot putt. The other three holes he won came on putts of 2 feet, 4 inches and 2 feet.

"That was a nice way to cap it off," O'Meara said.

And it was a good way to finish the season, even though O'Meara has one tournament left at the Target World Challenge - a $3 million tournament this week hosted by Woods.

The Skins Game might be a silly season event, but it carries a little more weight for a player who hasn't won a tournament of any kind in four years.

O'Meara last won at the '98 Skins Game.

"There was a lot of mention about the No. 1 and 2 players in the world," he said. "Most people wouldn't expect Mark O'Meara to come in here and win most of the money. But I know I can play with those guys every now and then. I can hang with them."