8:30 a.m.: Happy Black Friday morning, folks. My blood is made of tryptophan now, my bones are 90 years old, and I’ll never eat again. I have been hungover since 6 p.m. last night, and in a perfect world some kindly doctor would inject me with something that would let me sleep until December. However, there is a reason to get out of bed this morning, and it’s not to get trampled to death by moms at a Target (fun as that may sound). That’s right, the Skins Game is back!
It starts in a half hour on Prime Video, we haven’t seen it since 2008, and I’m here to give you a minute by minute breakdown of everything that goes down at Panther National between Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele, Shane Lowry, and Keegan Bradley. This is genuinely exciting, and perhaps the only thing that can revive me. I don’t drink coffee, but I’m going to splash some cold water on my face, stare at the bathroom mirror with a look of hollow regret for 7 to 9 minutes, then head out to my shed to get serious. See you in 30.
9:00 a.m.: In one of the great journalistic coups since Watergate, Golf Digest obtained the leaked opening sequence for the Skins Game on Wednesday, and I stand by my take that it’s a banger, but where is it?? All we got at the start was a little teaser music. Maybe they’re saving it up like a prestige show after a cold open.
Here we go! We’re right into it with some mic’d up action, and instantly we get Shane Lowry telling us that his wife’s big advice was, “don’t say anything stupid.”
Chad Mumm kicks us off with an admirably short intro, and bam, the first shots are hit with almost no preamble. Love that. It’s a windy day at Panther National, the palms are blowing, the tall grass is waving, and the players seem cold. Tommy Fleetwood in particular just groaned while picking up his ball like he was 85. I relate.
All four players are in the fairway, which is good, but also it looks like a pasture out there.
And now it’s history time! Nostalgia is a big part of this whole thing, and now they’re hitting us with some old school footage. Some great socks, Fred Funk wearing a skirt, and Tiger are what I get from the quick cuts, and I’m dutifully pumped. And when the highlights end, there it is: The opening sequence. Great stuff. This feels like good Friday morning content.
9:10 a.m.: I have to write a little bit less with each entry, or this thing is going to be 9,000 words long, and nobody wants that. So let’s hit some basics quickly:
—Andrew Catalon and Peter Jacobsen are in the booth, they showed Jacobsen’s first ever gig with Vin Scully at the ’84 Skins Game (the second one ever).
—The format is “reverse purse,” where everyone starts with $1 million, and you can go up or down from there over the course of the day. With a $4 million purse, someone could go go home with nothing, which would be very funny. (I assume there is some kind of appearance fee.) The value of each skin goes up over the course of the day, starting with $75k on this first hole, and getting into the hundreds of thousands by the end.
—Xander Schauffele is favored by Vegas. And while I don’t want to cast aspersions on our gamblers out there, if you bet on this thing, you may be a degenerate. Or an idiot.
“It’s going to get really quiet out here when we tie the first nine holes,” Schauffele jokes, and I’m getting the sense that he’s going to be the funniest one here. He follows that up by doing an announcer voice while Lowry putts, and saying, “straight from the water slide, it’s Shane Lowry.” I don’t know what that means, but I like it.
9:20 a.m.: It’s a split on the first hole, and right away Schauffele is trying to get information about what club Bradley hit on the second tee. “You can tell me, right?” They refuse. When Fleetwood sprays one far right, Schauffele asks on his behalf if he can re-tee.
The pace is brisk, which makes sense because there’s a 4-hour broadcast window, which means about 13 minutes per hole. This is exactly what I need.
Peter Jacobsen predicts that Lowry will be the most “fun” guy we see today, which is interesting both because of how funny Schauffele is, and by how grumpy Lowry has been for the entirety of 2025. By my count, he cursed out the course at almost every major, including the one where they put up a mural of him on a wall. Early returns today are…iffy. We’ll see. A few minutes later, Colt Knost takes my side and tips Xander for most exciting.
Bradley comes up short on his birdie putt, Xander tells him to “pick it up” (you can’t in this format), and we have another push.
9:30 a.m.: I’ll be honest, It’s hard for me to separate Bradley from the Ryder Cup shitshow. In my mind he should be in a dark room holding a glass of whiskey that he eventually hurls into the fireplace, not joking around in Florida. Especially with Lowry, who did this to him. You can’t leave the house after that, right?
He’s playing the best of anyone, though, and after he pipes one on three, Xander pulls one into the water and says, “this one’s on you boys.”
As the players all talk about what the Skins Game means to them (mildly convincing, at best), I have to reflect that at age 42, I’m the perfect age both to have Prime Video and know how to access it, but also to find it a little disconcerting. Ten years younger, and it would be totally unremarkable. Ten years older, and I’d be muttering, “an internet television channel???” while typing “Amazon” into askjeeves.com with one finger. Frankly, I would prefer either alternative.
Two other notes: Xander Schauffele just pulled off a pitch-perfect Sam Burns impression, which he warmed up for by singing the ABCs in a Louisiana drawl, and we got our first dose of former Golf Digest heartthrob Dan Rapaport, who tells us that they all have new caddies, and asks a good question: Do these guys get 10% of the earnings? I have to assume not, or their actual caddies would revolt. This is the definition of easy money.
9:40 a.m.: Lowry just buried a long birdie putt to keep Bradley from taking the first three skins, and immediately said, “I have spent the last three months breaking Keegan Bradley’s heart.” Ooooh baby. Cue up the “stop, stop, he’s already dead!” meme.
We have officially reached the part of the broadcast where Andrew Catalon is talking about “four skins” and all I can hear is “foreskins.” I’m very sorry about this. I wish I didn’t have to type it, but I’m a true pro.
Our first walk-and-talk with Lowry leaves him and Knost somewhat breathless, and we get a few solid nuggets—the 2019 Open hangover was worse than the 2025 Ryder Cup version, Bradley told him he could heckle him as much as he wants, and he’s growing out his beard to take some side gigs as Santa. By the way, my big prediction for this event is that Lowry is going to lurk and lurk and then win like nine skins on the last hole. It’s the Ryder Cup formula—he lives a charmed life.
By the way, this course is extremely easy for these guys.
9:50 a.m.: More birdies on four, and now we’re carrying over five skins worth $375,000. That hasn’t happened since 1995, apparently. I must also point out that we’re only through four holes in one hour. I have no idea if any of that matters or not, except possibly to my wife who is watching our children with the exact same food coma I’m dealing with. Take your time, fellas.
10:00 a.m.: Early returns: I’m liking the Skins Game. It’s laid back in the perfect way for this particular morning. The most important vibe is that nobody’s trying too hard. The other main takeaway is that Xander Schauffele is the funniest player of the four, and it’s not particularly close. It’s a slight shame JT had to get back surgery and back out, because I think he has the personality chops to hang. He might be one of the few. My ideal skins foursome would be those guys, Rory, and Justin Rose, who I think would be sneaky good at this. I also have this weird feeling that if Matt Fitzpatrick were here, Xander would bully him (with a smile) for 18 holes, and I’d like to see that. Anyway…
10:10 a.m.: I’ve sat here thinking about it for ten minutes, and I still don’t know what to think of Keegan Bradley’s mustache. It might be one of the more confusing issues of our time. I’ll let you know if I come up with an opinion.
Hot take: They should just do this on a par-3 course. I don’t think we really need longer holes in this format. All that matters is watching them try to make putts.
Lowry swears after the worst chip of his life on 5 green, brings up the five-second delay, then says, “I need a lot more than five seconds for what I want to say.”
10:20 a.m.: We have skins! Fleetwood misses a short birdie putt, and Keegan Bradley comes away with $375,000. He’s a good sport with Knost, saying he needs to get revenge for Bethpage, and we get an answer to a pressing question when Knost asks if his caddie (his buddy Jon Curran) will get 10%: “He’ll get something, yeah.”
Following that, we get an interview with Annika Sorenstam, who comes to use remotely from the set of the very best low-budget hostage videos.
I thought there was a bird chirping in my shed, but apparently it’s coming from the broadcast. We’re getting chaotic over here.
And right on time, Lowry’s complaining—he didn’t like the location of a camera boom. “It’s doing me head in!” To be fair, he beat the over/under of three holes.
10:30 a.m.: Skin for Tommy! Nice birdie on the par-3 sixth that Bradley can’t match. He tells Knost he’s disappointed that he couldn’t split the hole before, and when he argues that he made a good putt, Schauffele walks past and says that no, he didn’t. Excellent timing.
10:40 a.m.: Justin Thomas is alive and well, albeit looking a little scruffy and ragged after his back surgery. He drops the interesting tidbit that Xander does a good Adam Scott impression. If they don’t make him do it at some point in this broadcast, I’m going to be so upset.
Thomas designed Panther National with Jack Nicklaus, and it’s kind of funny when they ask him questions about the various course features and he basically says, “ask Jack, he did all the work.”
10:50 a.m.: Thomas calls Bradley a cheapskate, albeit in veiled language. Then he calls him a slow player, and there’s banter about Prime having to delay their 3 p.m. Bears-Eagles game. These are the insults I’ve tuned in for. As far as I’m concerned, the meaner the better.
Lowry misses a bunny on 7 when he could won a skin. “We’re going to need a 20-second delay,” Schauffele says
11:00 a.m.: We have two skins up for grabs, now worth $300,000, and one interesting part of this whole thing is that money is a main talking point, but it’s sort of hard to believe it matters that much to them. We get a lot of “the conversation is going to dry up when they’re putting for the big bucks” narrative, but are the bucks big enough?
Good stuff from Knost and Bradley on the walk-and-talk, where Bradley says that Schauffele “stinks,” and then admits that he’s a “psycho maniac” who operates at an “8 or a 9 in nervousness,” and is always testing out new equipment. But then it gets serious, and he admits that the last two months, post-Ryder Cup, has been tough, but that he’s getting better every day.
11:10 a.m.: More skins for Bradley! His preparation was extensive compared to the others, and it shows. He bags two more worth $300,000, with a great birdie putt on 9. Just before he made the putt, Knost predicted he’d miss, earning a “great call” from Thomas. That was funny enough, but credit to Knost for getting a sincere laugh when he went to Bradley and told him it was JT who predicted the miss. Tip of the cap there.
The best part of this right now are all the insults. To keep you up to date, Thomas has just insulted Knost for being a short hitter, and for having too many headcovers. “His bag looks like a flowerpot,” Jacobsen added.
11:40 a.m.: Okay, I’m back, somehow I got hungry again when I thought I was done eating forever. While I was gone, Lowry picked up a skin, and we’re on to the back nine. Schauffele almost just hit another ball in the water, Dan Rapaport points out that he’s the last guy without a skin, and all of this is making me want to go play golf.
I must point out that we’re on hole 10, and the broadcast is almost three hours long. It’s interesting to compare this to the Internet Invitational, and it’s not apples to apples, but it just reaffirms what an advantage it is to pre-tape and edit, particularly in our short attention span era. In live sports, that is clearly not an option (nor would I want it to be), but it does make me wonder if for something like the Skins Game you could play it on Wednesday, keep the results under wraps, and produce a snappy three-hour show to run on Friday morning. Maybe even borrow a YouTube trope by having cart cams?
Fleetwood just missed a 20-footer for $225,000, but when Bradley misses his par putt, it forces Schauffele to grind over his own par to carry it over. He very much does not want to be doing this, and I’m getting the sense that nobody has less confidence in his ability to make this four-footer than himself. But he does it!
“Should I interview Xander for finishing a hole?” Knost asks. He’s on fire today.
Noon: We’re going to start going every 20 minutes here or the word count is going to get egregious. We now have three skins worth $675,000 at stake on 11, following a Bradley birdie miss on 10 and a well-timed “you hate to see it” from Lowry.
I wonder who got to go see these guys play? Was it open to the public? It’s a super small crowd and they all seem to have passes of some kind.
They’ve got Fred Couples on the horn now, and one of the first things he says is how bad Xander is playing. This guy is getting both barrels from everyone. Apparently Couples was asked to introduce the players on the first tee, but didn’t realize until a week ago that he’d have to come to Florida to do it. And that’s why we’re getting a phone call instead.
But SECONDS after he predicts Lowry will be the big winner, the Irishman misses a four-footer that would have won him all that money and put him in the lead. Huge moment, and it guarantees that the next hole winner will win the biggest prize in Skins Game history.
12:20 p.m.: Bradley takes it! He now has 11 skins and $2.475 million. For his troubles, Lowry yelled “an expletive” at him, and Schauffele seems to have given him the forearm shiver from behind while he was talking to Knost. We now live in world where Bradley could win almost the whole kit and caboodle, and systematically reduce the other guys to almost nothing (or, in Schauffele’s case, literally nothing). I sort of want it to happen.
12:40 p.m.: Colt Knost heard my silent pleas from hours earlier, and just got Schauffele to do his Adam Scott impression. And I have to say: not very good. Pretty big disappointment. It was as bad as the Burns impression was good. I take no pleasure in reporting this, and I’m still glad he did it.
That said, he finally made a birdie. Lowry followed him in, and gave himself a sarcastic, “oh yeah, I like to make them for halves.”
Also, apparently it did matter that the pace was slow, because it looks like they’re calling it quits after 16 holes. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the original plan, right?
I just looked back, and nope, I am 100% wrong. It was always 16 holes, and I’m an idiot. I’m leaving everything I wrote before up for posterity, but suffice it to say I was completely off on all fronts, including about how long the whole thing would take.
12:50 p.m.: Shane Lowry just came up short on his approach on 15, and gave a yell that was almost identical to the one that Howard Dean unleashed to end his political career. Meanwhile, Bradley just stuck one on the par-5, and the concept of him winning almost everything has become all too real.
Absolute gem of an interview between Schauffele and Knost, starting with Schauffele saying none of the clothes on his app would fit Knost because it’s a Japanese brand, leading to this:
Knost: How’s it going to feel if you and I both win the same amount of skins today?
Schauffele: Pretty shitty, to be honest.
A few minutes later, Schauffele did a Keegan impression that totally redeemed the Adam Scott fiasco. Not because it was accurate, but because it was high-pitched and included the words “my name’s Keegan, will you play golf with me?” Absolutely juvenile.
1:00 p.m.: Onto the last hole! With three skins carrying over, they’re playing for $1.125 million, which will be the first million-dollar plus single win in Skins history. If they carry over, they’ll do a closest to the pin 130-yard shot to decide who gets the last massive chunk of change. Obviously I’m rooting for that.
1:10 p.m.: Shane Lowry just dropped the loudest possible f-bomb, and the censors were a beat late in muting it. And that was while walking up to his ball on 16 and seeing it, at most, five feet away. Knost reminded him he was on national tv, and Lowry genuinely seemed baffled as to what he meant. “Am I talking too much?”
We’ve got three guys here with legitimate birdie looks, but Bradley lips his out. That leaves Fleetwood and Lowry, who have to either both miss or both make to get us to the one-shot sudden death shootout.
Lowry pushes it by! It’s down to Fleetwood, one putt for a million dollars…
AND HE HITS IT!
Wowwwwwwwwww.
That leaves him at $1.7 million, Bradley the winner at $2.1 million, Lowry with just a single skin, and Xander with nothing. Which is pretty much what he deserved.
1:15 p.m.: Final thoughts….not a bad way to spend Black Friday. My criticisms were that it was maybe a little slow at times, and there were some production miscues like recurring static on audio, but those all seem very fixable and the positives outweighed the negatives. The banter was better than I thought it would be, thanks in large part to shit-talking MVP Xander and a shockingly funny Colt Knost, and the golf was dramatic enough to sustain interest. I would absolutely watch again, and it fits nicely on this specific time slot, just before we all crash out and watch football the rest of the day. I’m calling it a success, and I hope it’s back for good. And now I must return to my food coma, from which I will not emerge until Monday. Happy Thanksgiving.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
