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Skinner tees off vs. world’s best today

• Sylvester resident and River Pointe Golf Club pro Sonny Skinner fulfills a career goal today when he tees off in the first major of his 18-year career.

Scott Chancey

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. — Sonny Skinner has done a little of everything this year.

He has played in nine Nationwide Tour events, qualified for his first major — today’s PGA Championship, by finishing second in the PGA Professional National Championship  — and even took time to do something a little, well, interesting.

“I was a pirate for a week,” he said with a laugh earlier this week as he thought back to late July when the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open was held.

No, seriously.

The Virginia native and Sylvester resident spent a week not too long ago at River Pointe Golf Club — where he’s an assistant pro — and helped entertain kids who took part in a pirate camp.

“Shipwreck Skinner,” he joked after being asked if he took on a name from the high seas. “Nah, but that’s probably what it oughta be.”

But Skinner is shipwrecked no longer.

In fact, the opening round of the PGA Championship — Skinner’s first major in his up-and-down 18-year pro career — officially marks the day his ship has come in.

Today,  against the likes of Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and golf’s other stars, and away from the world of make believe, Skinner will tee off at 9:15 a.m. at Oakland Hills Country Club (also known as “The Monster”) as he continues living his dream of playing professional golf and realizing his long-awaited goal of playing in a major.

“Just like anything else, you’re glad that he’s getting to experience the one thing he’s always wanted to achieve,” Skinner’s wife of 18 years, Algenia, said. “This is like one of his career-long dreams. I'm really proud of him for getting to do this and being able to participate in a major.”

Algenia is not the only one.

“At River Pointe, it has been really good with  everybody supporting me,” Skinner said. “Some that have even played there before would talk with me about it. (River Pointe) owner Jos Bekkers and (head pro) Buster Clark have been so supportive. I wouldn’t be able to do this without them.”

Skinner, who even worked at Albany-based McGregor Golf earlier this decade but quit because his golf time was limited, is not afraid of competing against the likes of Mickelson or Singh (who Skinner practiced with Monday and Tuesday) or even British Open champion Padraig Harrington.

Nearing the age of 48, however, he is realistic about his chances this week.

“I don’t think I can win it,” Skinner said. “It’s not going to keep me from trying. It would take a miracle, and I know that better than anybody.”

Although the world’s No. 1-ranked player and defending PGA Championship and U.S Open winner, Tiger Woods, isn’t playing because of recent surgery, not many players will find comfort in that. In their mind, Oakland Hills is far from an easy test.

“This is as tough of a setup as I've ever seen,” Steve Stricker said.

During this week’s practice rounds, Harrington even compared it to the U.S. Open, which traditionally is the toughest layout to play in the U.S. among the majors.

"The usual setup for the PGA is more like a tough U.S. tour event," Harrington, the two-time defending British Open champion, said. "It's nearly more U.S. Open-type than the U.S. Open is at the moment, if that makes any sense. It's actually like they switched the two of them around this year."

Mickelson, who is the world’s No. 2 player, just wants to add major victory No. 4 to his résumé. He won the 2004 and ’06 Masters, and the 2005 PGA Championship.

"This is a big week, because right now my season, with just two wins, is just OK,” said Mickelson, who won the Northern Trust Open and Crowne Plaza Invitational. “But if I were able to come through on Sunday and win this event, it would make an OK year a great one."

The course has been stretched 318 yards since the 2004 Ryder Cup, measuring 7,395 yards, the longest in major championship history for a par 70. Two of the par 3s are over 235 yards, so long they have fairways.

“I think it’s going to be really tough — really really tough,” Skinner said. “All I know is I do hit the ball straight and can chip really well and you’ve got to do that well on really tough courses. I don’t hit the ball very long and this is a very long course, though, and very difficult.

“I’m just going to see the course and see what’s a realistic score for me and my abilities. My main goal here is to try to be low club pro and hopefully make the cut and that would be rewarding enough.”

Skinner first qualified for the 1990 PGA Tour, but then lost his card at season’s end.

Although he has annually attended Q-School for 26 years, he only successfully re-joined the Tour full time on three other occasions.

And he has had occasional glory on the PGA Tour.

Eleven years ago, he tied a Buick Open record with a 10-under-par 62 and had the first-round lead at Warwick Hills Country Club, which coincidentally is in the same state that’s home to this week’s PGA Championship course at Oakland Hills. The highest finish from his 116 PGA Tour events was a tie for 13th in the Deposit Guaranty Classic in 1997. On what is now known as the Nationwide Tour, Skinner won the 1993 Shreveport Open and 1994 Dominion Open.

Of Skinner’s nine Nationwide Tour events he’s played in this year, his best finish was a tie for 18th in the Athens Regional Foundation Classic.

His career earning between the two tours currently sits at $826,661. After the PGA Championship, Skinner plans to play only one more Nationwide event — next weekend’s Xerox Classic in Rochester, N.Y. — and then return to working at River Pointe.

But for now, even though Skinner came so close to winning it all at the PGA Professional National Championship earlier this year, not getting a trophy is irrelevant.

His 13-year-old daughter, Marlee, reminded him of that after the tournament.

“She said, ‘Daddy, you don’t need that trophy, we’ve got plenty of trophies,’ ” Skinner said.

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