Couples to make Champions debut in January

Fred Couples, who turned 50 in October, will make his Champions Tour debut at the Wendy's Champions Skins Game in Hawaii in mid-January.

Couples will partner with Nick Price in the alternate-shot format event that will be played at Royal Kaanapali Golf Course.

Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Gary Player are also competing in the Jan. 16-17 tournament, which is in its 23rd year and fifth with an alternate-shot team format.

The teams will play nine holes each day, with the event televised by ESPN on Feb. 27-28.

Ben Crenshaw and Fuzzy Zoeller will return to defend their 2009 title. Nicklaus and Watson will be teammates for the fifth straight year. Player's teammate will be Loren Roberts.

The $770,000 purse has $30,000 distributed for each of the first six holes, $40,000 for each of the next six, $50,000 for holes 13 through 17 and $100,000 for the 18th hole. Prize money is carried over if no team wins a hole outright.

Couples, who captained the U.S. Presidents Cup team to victory last month, won 15 times in his PGA Tour career, including the 1992 Masters.

Bob Harig is the golf writer for ESPN.com.