The 2008 edition was the last time the Skins game was played. In 2009, LG backed out of the sponsorship, leaving the event without its financial backbone. The decision to cancel came quickly, and what had been a Thanksgiving weekend must-watch since 1983 simply disappeared from the calendar. However, sponsorship wasn’t the only reason.

Officials from the PGA Tour said that the TV ratings were going down, which became one of the major reasons. The data indicated that the event was losing audience interest, with officials referring to it as having “sagging ratings.”

The 2008 finale, 18 years ago, which starred K.J. Choi, Stephen Ames, Phil Mickelson, and Fred Funk, only got a 0.7 rating on Saturday and a 1.1 on Sunday. This was a long way from the event’s glory days. In the past, the Skins Game was often one of the most-watched golf tournaments of the year, and sometimes it even had ratings that were as high as the Masters. That decline didn’t go unnoticed.

Well, now the landscape has changed! The event is returning on Black Friday, after 17 years, organized by Pro Shop in partnership with the PGA Tour and Propagate Content. “We’ve taken up the mantle to bring back The Skins Game and reclaim its rightful place on the sports calendar,” Chad Mumm announced.

Chris Wandell, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of media, said, “Reimagining an iconic event like The Skins Game in a retro-modern way that engages today’s sports fans is exactly why the PGA Tour has partnered with Pro Shop.” The plan is to keep the tradition that made the Skins Game popular while updating the show to appeal to today’s audiences.

This year, the format itself gets a fun twist. Every participant starts with $1 million, and the “reverse purse” takes money away when they lose skins instead of starting from scratch. The change aims to create immediate stakes; watching your total drop from a million to $900,000 on the sixth hole should spark some competitive fire.

We don’t know yet if this return can bring back what made the Skins Game so remarkable. But the basic notion is still there: great players compete in a high-stakes tournament on a weekend when everyone is enjoying holidays in the living room with family.

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Will fans get to see the Ryder Cup connection at the Skins game?

The 2025 Skins Game features four Ryder Cup golfers: Keegan Bradley, Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele, and Lowry.

Keegan Bradley was the captain of Team USA at the 2025 Ryder Cup held at Bethpage Black in September. Europe won the cup back with a score of 15-13. Now, Bradley is facing two of the Europeans who played a big part in that win: Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry. Xander Schauffele, who was also on Bradley’s American team.

At the press conference, Bradley talked about the expected trash talk. He said that if Fleetwood “talked trash to me seriously, I would curl up in a ball,” adding it would be “horrifying.” Bradley mentioned that his role this time is different from being a Ryder Cup captain. He said, “I won’t have a walkie-talkie in my hand on Friday; I’ll have a golf club,” describing it as his “chance to get back at these two maniacs down there.”

Lowry, who took the place of the injured Justin Thomas, joked about the atmosphere at Bethpage, saying, “I won’t have 50,000 New Yorkers in my ear.” He also noted that Bradley had “already paid me and Tommy [Fleetwood] extra to not talk about the Ryder Cup,” recognizing the recent tension between the players.

The 2025 Skins Game won’t be a quiet, buttoned-up event with Schauffele, Fleetwood, Lowry, and Bradley all mic’d up and ready. What happens on Black Friday morning will determine whether those factors can recreate the magic that once made the Skins Game an entertaining event.