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TPC Scottsdale (Stadium Course)



    News

    Is the Skins Game on life support?

    March 21, 2009

    An ESPN vice president has indicated that the Skins Game, a Thanksgiving weekend mainstay, might finally have succumbed to lack of interest.

    "I believe it is dead in its old form. We cannot continue in the same manner," Tony Renaud, vice president new business for ESPN, told the Desert Sun. "We cannot keep the purse that low. We have got to be able to compete with Dubai and whatever. We've got to get some changes from the tour."

    The Skins Game does not have a sponsor for 2009, which threatens at the very least to kill it this year. But Renaud indicated that PGA Tour concessions are required, including allowing tournament organizers to choose the players without tour restrictions that now require that the leading money winner and the winner of the Players Championship be extended invitations.

    Put me in the camp that believes it's time (past time, in fact) to pull the plug on the event.

    -- John Strege