The Dead Skins: The Champions Tour Senior Skins Game on Maui bites the dust

Is the skins game as a made-for-TV golf event officially dead?

I think the tribe has spoken on this one.

The annual Champions Tour Senior Skins Game on Maui won’t happen this year, according to the Maui News. This is the first time since 1988 the games won’t take place. The last seven years have been on Maui, the last four at Kaanapali.

It was the last survivor of skins games that hadn’t fallen by the wayside during this economic meltdown. I wrote a blog years ago talking about my love for the annual skins game during Thanksgiving weekend. That event died in 2007 when K.J. Choi beat two-time defending champion Steven Ames. (I think we can guess why it’s no longer around, right? Who tunes in to watch Choi play Ames, Rocco Mediate and Phil Mickelson?)

I also enjoyed the Par-3 shootout, a skins game played on the unique Threetops par-3 course at Treetops Resort in Gaylord in northern Michigan. It was televised tape-delay by ESPN for seven years before disappearing in 2006. The LPGA Skins Game went to its grave in 2003.

Kaanapali officials have indicated they’re open to hosting a senior skins game for 2013 or beyond. Sadly, it’s the same story I heard from the Treetops folks for many years. They’d love to host – and garner all the TV exposure – as long as somebody else pays for it.

I’m guessing the 2011 Senior Skins game was the last of its kind – a made-for-TV cash grab by a resort dying for publicity played by a bunch of golfers who could use some extra coin – at least until the economy does a major about-face.

This time, I won’t miss it.