By Mike Blum
For the past three decades, Sonny Skinner has been grinding away on various professional tours, putting thousands of miles on whatever car he happened to be driving at the time.
Skinner has enjoyed some success here and there, winning twice on what used to be known as the Ben Hogan (now Nationwide) Tour and playing full time for four years on the PGA Tour in the 1990s.
From 1990-2004, Skinner competed on either the PGA Tour or the next level down in golf’s pecking order. Although there were some lean years along the way, he was able to play full time as a tour pro before being limited to a small number of unproductive starts in 2005.
Skinner began transitioning from his career as a tour player in 2006, taking a job as a manufacturer’s representative. He also worked for a brief period as a caddy for Allen Doyle on the Champions Tour before becoming a club professional at Pine Knoll CC, a 9-hole course in the community of Sylvester, Skinner’s home town.
In his first season playing a full Georgia PGA schedule, Skinner topped the Divots points list to earn Player of the Year honors in 2006. He placed second, third and fourth in the standings in consecutive years from 2008-10, and has made his mark at the national PGA level, claiming PGA Player of the Year honors in 2008 and twice finishing as runner-up in the PGA Professional National Championship
Skinner turned 50 during the summer of 2010, and has made a handful of starts on the Champions Tour since. He made it to the finals of qualifying in 2010 and repeated that feat last year, narrowly missing a top five finish to earn exempt status on this year’s tour.
In last year’s finals, played in Scottsdale, Ariz., in mid-November, Skinner put together four straight rounds in the 60s to finish with a 13-under 271 total. That left him in a three- way tie for sixth, necessitating a playoff to determine the order for non-exempt players 6 through 12 from Q-school.
Both Skinner and Jim Carter faced short birdie putts on the second hole of sudden death Carter made his and Skinner missed, leaving Carter as the first non-exempt player from 2011 Q-school and Skinner in the second spot. Because medalist Jeff Freeman doesn’t turn 50 until April, Carter will get into the first few tournaments on the schedule with Skinner next in line.
Unfortunately for Skinner, his status will provide him no more than a minimum number of starts this year, with his hopes of gaining entry into Champions Tour events hinging on his success in Monday qualifiers preceding most tour stops.
As a result, Skinner will do what he’s done since leaving the tour full time — divide his schedule between playing in tour events, competing in Georgia PGA tournaments and seeing to his duties as the head PGA professional at River Pointe GC in Albany.
Since joining the staff at River Pointe, Skinner has been encouraged by the club’s owner to play as full a tournament schedule as possible, and he came very close to being able to play an extensive Champions Tour schedule this year.
After scores of 67-68-69, Skinner began the final round tied for 17th and figured he needed to shoot 65 to jump into the top five. After 13 holes, Skinner was 5-under on the day at the TPC Scottsdale course, but admitted he “started getting nervous” and bogeyed the next two holes. A late birdie gave him a 67 on the day and a tie for sixth, one shot
behind the player who finished solo fifth.
“I was really pleased with the way I played,” Skinner said from Florida recently after playing in a PGA Winter Series tournament. “I hit the ball well all week. It was all about whether I made putts.
“I really played good in the third round. I hit the ball beautifully but I made absolutely nothing.”
Knowing that winning the playoff would guarantee him at least a few starts early in the season, Skinner says he was “bummed out that I didn’t get that spot. But I shot four low scores in a row and played the best I played all year.
“It just wasn’t good enough.”
Going into the 2012 Champions Tour schedule, Skinner says, “I’m not sure how much I’m going to get to play.”
The Champions Tour has raised the number of Monday qualifiers who will get spots in the field from four to seven, and that will be the primary path for Skinner to get into events this year.
The one tournament in which he doesn’t have to worry about qualifying for is the Senior PGA Championship, one of just two Champions Tour events he played in last year.
Skinner tied for 45th in the Senior PGA Championship last year at Valhalla in Louisville, Ky., finishing as low club pro in the tournament. He tied for 10th in the PGA Senior PNC in Virginia to earn a spot in this year’s Senior PGA Championship, which will be played May 24-27 in Michigan.
Those two results, plus his first place finish in the PGA’s Winter Series in Florida, enabled Skinner to earn PGA Senior Player of the Year honors, just three years after he claimed Player of the Year honors among all PGA professionals.
“To be Player of the Year is pretty cool,” said Skinner. “It doesn’t mean I was the best. It means I played more and got a few more points. The owner at River Pointe encourages me to go out and play tournaments. I’ve got a little different situation.”
Skinner’s duties at River Pointe include some administrative work, some teaching and efforts “to try to promote the game of golf.” Juggling his schedule between the needs of the club and his extensive mix of Champions Tour and Georgia PGA Section events “is difficult,” Skinner says, with conflicting tournament dates adding to the decisions he has to make.
Much of Skinner’s success as a player has come since he transitioned from full time tour player to primarily a PGA competitor. In recent years he has made two appearances in the PGA Championship, played on PGA Cup teams along with fellow PGA members and has been a major player at the national level in PGA events, both before and after turning 50.
“I’ve never been a great player,” says Skinner. “I’m proud of the fact I played on the PGA Tour, but I’ve mostly been on the outside, I just tried to find a little peephole and stick my head in.”