LA QUINTA, California (September 16, 1997) Fred Couples will be trying for his third straight Skins Game title when the 15th edition of the competition takes place November 29-30 at Rancho La Quinta Country Club.

Couples will be challenged by Masters champion Tiger Woods, 1996 PGA Tour Player of the Year Tom Lehman, and 14-time PGA Tour winner Mark O'Meara in the $540,000 event. Couples's challengers were selected by a blue ribbon panel of golf experts.

"We are quite excited about this field -- a two-time defending champion who is one of the greatest players of his era, the finest young player to come along since Jack Nicklaus, and two of the great stars who will play on this year's Ryder Cup team," said Chuck Gerber, executive vice president of OCC Sports, Inc.

The event will be televised by ABC-TV from 3:30 to 6 p.m. EST both days.

Couples won nine skins and $280,000 last year against Woods, Tom Watson and John Daly. Couples will be trying to join Payne Stewart as the only players ever to win three consecutive Skins Games. Stewart's victories ran from 1991-93.

This will be the sixth straight year of Skins Game competition for Couples, a two-time PGA Tour Player of the Year as well as a former Masters champion. Only Nicklaus, who played in the first nine Skins Games from 1983 through '91, has played in more than six. Couples has never finished worse than second in the Skins Game and he has earned $1,190,000 in five events. He is the only Skins Game millionaire.

Woods leads the PGA Tour money list with $1,949,920 this year and has won a season-high four tournaments. He also tops the Tour in driving distance and birdies, and is second in scoring and tied for fourth in greens in regulation.

Lehman, a 38-year-old veteran, has yet to win a tournament this year. He was third at the U.S. Open and sixth at The Players Championship and has eight top-10 finishes in 18 tournaments in 1997. He has earned $842,041 this year to push his career earnings to $5,524,457.

O'Meara, who happens to be a Florida neighbor of Woods and one of his closest friends on Tour, is a veteran of 17 years on the PGA Tour. Seven of his 14 career wins have come in California, with five of those at Pebble Beach. He has two wins on the PGA Tour this year, and won the Lancome Trophy, a PGA European Tour event in France, on September 14.