Choi leads Skins with £75,000 birdie,
Mickelson earns $25,000 for eagle

K.J. Choi, playing in his first LG Skins Game, using a sharp short game and dead-eye putting to take the first-day lead in the 26th annual event at Indian Wells, California on Saturday.
Choi rolled in a 4ft birdie putt worth $75,000 on the third hole.
That gave him the lead over Phil Mickelson, who earned $25,000 with an eagle 3 on the fourth hole. Two-time defending champion Stephen Ames and Rocco Mediate, playing in his first Skins Game, were shut out on the first nine holes.
With the foursome halving the final five holes of the front nine, $900,000 of the event's $1 million purse is still alive for Sunday's final nine holes.
"Everybody here is a good player, good games and good short-game players," Choi said. "I was just really focused on 100 yards and inside."
The focus paid off for Choi, who missed a 12-foot birdie on the first hole that could have won a skin but then made four birdies in the next seven holes. Playing the best golf of the foursome, Choi halved the second hole with Mediate with birdies, then won the $75,000 carry-over money on the third hole with an easy birdie while Mickelson and Ames missed the green long and Mediate missed a 90-foot birdie putt.
Choi also birdied the sixth hole from six feet and the eighth hole from five feet, but was tied both times in the format that only gives money to the outright winner of a hole.
With the foursome halving the final five holes Saturday, the first hole on Sunday will be worth $250,000.
"That's a lot of money on the first hole," said Ames, who won $650,000 of his $675,000 in the 2007 Skins Game on the final hole Sunday. "We'll see how well everyone sleeps tonight."
"It's going to be a very interesting first hole of the day," Mickelson said. "We are all going to be a little bit nervous, a little bit tight trying to make birdie, because the guy who gets that first skin is going to be able to freewheel it a little bit the back nine."
• As is customary at the LG Skins Game, all four participants have agreed to donate 20 percent of their winnings ($200,000) out of the $1 million purse to their favourite charities. Ames is playing for The Stephen Ames Foundation, while Mickelson is playing for the Phil and Amy Mickelson Charitable Gift Fund. Mediate is playing for Small World Big Life, and Choi is playing for the K.J. Choi Foundation.