Floyd is the three-time defending champion at the $540,000 Senior Skins Game, which tees it up tomorrow morning at the Mauna Lani Resort South Course on the Big Island.
Hale Irwin, who won last week's MasterCard Championship at the Hualalai Golf Club - another lava-designed course just down the road from Mauna Lani - is in a Senior Skins field for the first time.
Irwin, who is Kapalua's touring pro, won $186,000 at Hualalai in the Senior Tour's tournament of champions last weekend and has really cleaned up on the 50-and-older circuit.
Last year, the three-time U.S. Open champ was the second-leading money winner behind Jim Colbert at $1,615,769.
"He will be difficult to beat," said Floyd, currently another top money winner on the Senior Tour. "You have to be impressed with Hale's record in major events and how he has performed on the Senior Tour."
Irwin and Floyd will be joined by two other huge names in golf - Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino, a late replacement for Arnold Palmer, who is recovering from prostate cancer surgery.
The nationally televised Senior Skins is scheduled to begin tomorrow and Sunday at 8 a.m. Nine holes are played each day.
In the Skins format, each hole is a tournament within itself, with the prize money carried over if no player wins the hole outright.
The $540,000 purse is broken down to $20,000 for each of the first six holes, $30,000 for each of the six middle holes and $40,000 for each of the six final holes.
The players donate 20 percent of their winnings to the charity of their choice.
Floyd first appeared in the Senior Skins at Mauna Lani in 1993 and won $60,000. Then he really got hot and won the competition in 1994 ($240,000), 1995 ($420,000) and last year ($240,000).
"I think part of it is good fortune," Floyd said. "Skins is a very unique competition.
"You can play very well and not win a skin, then win the whole shooting match on one hole."
Nicklaus - the winner of 20 major championships - has won $735,000 in six Senior Skins appearances. Last year, he only captured the last skin for $40,000.
But Floyd said not to count him out.
"Jack is the greatest that's ever played the game," he said. "He may not be the player he once was, but in the Senior Skins, with his desire and competitive nature, Jack will always be the guy to beat."
Trevino has won $305,000 in five Senior Skins appearances. In his last appearance at Mauna Lani in 1995, he and Palmer were shut out. But Trevino did win $80,000 in the 1994 Senior Skins.
Naturally, a lot of thought was with Palmer, who has played in all nine Senior Skins Games.
"We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to having him back in 1998," said Barry Frank, vice president of Trans World International, a co-producer of the event. "We know this is not the way Lee would choose to participate in the Senior Skins Game, but we appreciate him coming forward at this late juncture."
This is the eighth consecutive year that the competition has been held at the scenic par-72, 7,045-yard South Course.
Vin Scully and Mark Rolfing will be the announcers for the ABC telecast, which will be shown delayed in Hawaii.