This Week In Golf: A $1 Million Par 3, A TV Classic Returns And The Final Battle Between Two Future Stars

This Week In Golf: Jonny Leighfield’s regular look at the biggest stories in professional golf, tournament previews and other key details you need to know.

The PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour are both done until 2026 and the holidays are right around the corner, but the golfing circus continues to roll on regardless. And, this week, it's all about money.

OK, so there's rarely a week where money isn't the key subject in golf, but it's especially true over the coming days as a TV classic which relies on dollars is returning and the DP World Tour is operating a cool incentive at its first event of the new season.

Meanwhile, one of the biggest prize money payouts is on the line as the Ladies European Tour comes to a close and the PGA Tour has recently announced a new financial support program.

Check out some of the biggest storylines from around the world of golf this week below.

THE SKINS GAME RETURNS

For the first time in 17 years, The Skins Game returns to TV. A format once played by the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Lee Trevino and Fred Couples (not all together, I might add) will feature Keegan Bradley, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood and Xander Schauffele in 2025.

Kicking off Black Friday on Amazon Prime at 9am ET, the four players will start with $1 million each and lay it all on the line as the 'reverse purse' makes its debut.

The return of The Skins Game is taking place on the Big Cat course at Panther National, designed by Nicklaus and Justin Thomas. The latter was due to be involved but has since undergone back surgery and was replaced by Lowry.

$1M PAR 3 IN PLAY AS NEW DP WORLD TOUR SEASON BEGINS

The 2025-26 DP World Tour season begins this week with the BMW Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane.

Hometown hero Cam Smith is one of nine LIV golfers in the field, with some of the other players involved having competed at the DP World Tour Championship only a fortnight ago.

And while everyone is hoping to make a winning start to the season while banking a big check, fans in attendance could also earn something, too.

The Dabble Party Hole - a.k.a the par-3 17th - is set to feature a $1 million payout to all those inside the stands if and when a pro makes a hole-in-one during any of the four competition rounds.

THE LET SEASON REACHES ITS CONCLUSION

In the same week as the DP World Tour begins, the Ladies European Tour is coming to its conclusion. The final tournament of the season is the Andalucia Open de Espana, which - in turn - will decide who which young star wins the Order of Merit.

Heading into the finale, Shannon Tan tops the standings by 219 points from Mimi Rhodes after claiming two wins and eight top-10s this year. Meanwhile, Rhodes has three victories and five top-10s.

There is 500 points up for grabs for the winner in Spain as a field of 75 players (64 members and 11 invites) battles it out over four days of no-cut action for the 700,000 euro payout.

Realistically, Rhodes either needs to win or come second at Real Guadalhorce Club de Golf in order to put severe pressure on Tan, who would otherwise only need to finish inside the top-45 if Rhodes is third or worse.

PGA TOUR LAUNCHES NEW FINANCIAL-SUPPORT PROGRAMS

According to Golf Channel's Brentley Romine, the PGA Tour is introducing two new financial-support packages starting next season.

The first is called the Member Support Program, which will give $150,000 to those players who finished 126th or lower in the previous season's FedEx Cup points list.

Pros will be eligible for this stipend as long as they have played 12 events across the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour and will not have to repay the difference if they don't reach the $150,000 earnings mark.

Meanwhile, the second program is called the Pathways Player Achievement Grant, which will give players ranked 21-75 in the previous year's Korn Ferry Tour points list, the leading 10 players in the PGA Tour Americas points list and the top-five eligible players out of PGA Tour University $15,000 grants at the start of the year.

They can use this money for whatever they wish, but it is mean to help with travel and accommodation costs throughout the season.

The money for these financial support packages has come from the Earnings Assurance Program, which shares $500,000 with each fully exempt PGA Tour member at the beginning of each season. After the PGA Tour reduced the number of fully exempt cards from 125 to 100, the circuit decided to channel the funds it had kept aside to other sources.

ELSEWHERE

• Also per Brentley Romine, the Korn Ferry Tour is set to permit distance-measuring devices for the entire 2026 season while adopting the revised pace-of-place policy it implemented early last year
• On the Asian Tour, the Bharath Classic 2025 Gujarat in India marks the penultimate event of the season
• Scotland's Cameron Adam makes his professional debut at the Australian PGA Championship. Adam topped the R&A's Global Amateur Pathway rankings and earned a DP World Tour card as a result
• Minjee Lee won her fourth Greg Norman medal - handed out to the best Australian golfer that year - at the Australian PGA awards. But as she couldn't be at the actual ceremony to accept, her brother Min Woo Lee attended instead and entertained the crowd with a speech typical of a sibling

• The USGA has invited 12 players to attend a practice session at Bel-Air Country Club in LA ahead of the 2026 Curtis Cup. The practice session is marked for Jan. 16-18 and will feature the likes of Anna Davis, Jasmine Koo, Catherine Park, Asterisk Talley and Avery Weed
• Australia's Anthony Quayle has employed Tiger Woods' former caddie Steve Williams as his bagman for the first two events of the new DP World Tour season
• Joost Luiten finally landed a spot in the Nedbank Golf Challenge following his criticism of the qualifying list, but he still called out the DP World Tour for being 'inconsistent'