
3 MIN READ
November 26, 2025
It's been 17 years since the Skins Game has been played and now it's returning with an excellent cast of players at an exciting new course.
Panther National will play host to Keegan Bradley, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood and Xander Schauffele giving golf fans our first true look at the venue that was designed by Jack Nicklaus and Justin Thomas.
Related: The Skins Game Just Added a Legend to the Broadcast Team
Staying true to the Skins Game history, each hole is worth a "skin" with ties rolling over and ramping up the stakes. However, this year's features a twist—"The Reverse Purse." Each golfer will start with $1,000,000 on their tally with money being distributed from those totals throughout the event. Winning skins is one thing, but these golfers will also be looking to avoid going home empty handed!
Bradley is a notoriously fast starter who has become a "First Round Leader" darling in the community over the past handful of years. In 2025, he posted the 12th best Strokes Gained total mark on TOUR which is buoyed by his high-end approach play. He ranked 31st in proximity this year and 10th from 125-150 yards which is prime birdie-making, skin-winning territory.
The second hole at Panther National is a stout 230 yard par-3 which is long even by tour pro standards. The likely outcome is a tie but there is plenty of value on Fleetwood making a birdie, which would almost certainly win the skin. Fleetwood makes birdie 9.2% of the time on par-3s over 215 yards which is significantly ahead of his peers in this match. It's nearly twice the rate of Scahuffele who put a circle on his card just 5.7% of the time on these holes.
Note: Holes 13 and 15 are also par-3s over 220 yards so you could consider Fleetwood for all three holes.
There's nothing against Shane here, but there's just too many mouths to feed. Lowry's birdie average (3.59) ranked 156th on TOUR this year and his Par 4 Scoring (4.01) was 91st. Lowry is much better at avoiding bogeys than he is at making birdies. His opponents are stout birdie-makers who are having better years making this an uphill battle for Lowry.
Fleetwood has been firmly the third best player in the world this year, right behind Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. Not only did he gain 1.73 strokes per round this year, win twice and earn (10) Top 5 finishes -- he hasn't stopped playing! Since the Ryder Cup, Fleetwood has teed it up four times on the DP World Tour while earning a win, second, and third place finish along the way. His game is in impeccable form and there will be no signs of rust.
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