The Skins Game returns this week for the first time since 2008. Though the lineup of players doesn’t match the inaugural 1983 edition (featuring Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player), there is one wrinkle that should add some interest: Ryder Cup rivalries.
Keegan Bradley, the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain, will compete for the first time since before his team’s devastating loss at Bethpage Black. And the two European players most responsible for his defeat will be his competitors.
That led Bradley to joke about his fear that trash talk from his European masters could cause him to “curl up into a ball” during a press conference promoting the event.
Here’s what you need to know.
Skins Game returns with Ryder Cup lineup
For the first time in nearly 20 years, golf fans will get to watch top pros play a big-money skins game live on TV after Thanksgiving this year. The Capitol One Skins Game, as it’s officially known, kicks off Friday, November 28, at 9 a.m. ET.
Joining Bradley will be one of his 2025 Ryder Cup players, Xander Schauffele. European Ryder Cup stars Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry, who is subbing in for an injured Justin Thomas, round out the four-player field.
The match will go down at Panther National in Florida, which was designed by Thomas and Jack Nicklaus, and feature a traditional skins format plus a “reverse purse,” in which all players start with $1 million and contribute to the pots to try and take each other’s money.
While all four competitors are popular players, the main draw might end up being lingering Ryder Cup animosities. At least that was the main topic on the players’ minds in the lead-up to the event.
Bradley, Lowry preview Skins Game trash talk
On Thursday, the competitors took part in a pre-match virtual press conference, and jabs about the Ryder Cup were at the forefront.
That’s not surprising given what unfolded at Bethpage in September. Bradley’s U.S. team didn’t just get beat on home soil by the Europeans. They did so amid a chaotic atmosphere in which European players were harassed by unruly fans.
“I won’t have 50,000 New Yorkers in my ear,” Lowry joked during the press conference.
Lowry, who secured the final half point Europe needed to retain the Ryder Cup at Bethpage, was also quick to needle Bradley over his team’s loss.
“Keegan’s already paid me and Tommy [Fleetwood] extra to not talk about the Ryder Cup,” Lowry said.
But Bradley’s fears about trash talk aren’t focused on Lowry, instead it’s Fleetwood who is keeping Keegan up at night. Fleetwood is one of pro golf’s quintessential nice guys, and Bradley admitted seeing him trash talk might break him.
“If Tommy talked trash to me in a serious way, I would curl up in a ball. I’d be so scared,” Bradley joked. “That would be like horrifying.”
