Scottie Scheffler’s historic victory at the Players Championship last week was a timely reminder that the PGA Tour is still capable of producing thrilling events for golf fans.
But a recent trend of falling viewership suggests that the tour still leaves much to be desired when it comes to attracting fans, two years into its battle with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
According to viewership stats reported by Sports TV Ratings on Twitter, NBC’s coverage of Sunday’s Players Championship drew 3.5 million viewers, a 17 per cent drop from last year’s final round of 4.1m.
NBC draws 3.5M viewers for Scottie Scheffler’s win in the Players Championship (per @SportsTVRatings), down from 4.1M last year.Two years ago: 2.9M for Sunday coverage (Cam Smith won on a Monday). 2021: 4.6M for Justin Thomas. pic.twitter.com/pfMbbvtPO8March 19, 2024
In fact, according to Sports Media Watch, the 2024 Players Championship was the least-watched final round for the event billed as “golf’s fifth major” in the past 10 years, with the exception of 2022 (2.91m) when the tournament concluded on Monday due to weather delays.
The decline in viewership has been a worrying trend for the PGA Tour this year, with only 2.3m viewers reportedly tuning in to NBC’s final-round broadcast of the Arnold Palmer Invitational – also won by Scottie Scheffler – the previous week, a 30 per cent drop from last year’s 3.3m when Kurt Kitayama claimed the title.
The PGA Tour’s other signature events followed a similar decline, with ratings for the final round of the Genesis Invitational down five per cent from 3.4m in 2023 – which was won by new LIV Golf recruit Jon Rahm – to 3.2m this year. Even the opening round of the event at Riviera, which included Tiger Woods, performed poorly compared to last year, seeing a drop of 51 per cent.
Meanwhile, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was a disaster for the PGA Tour, with weather conditions forcing the final round to be delayed and eventually canceled, allowing LIV’s Mayakoba event on the Sunday – which drew 432,000 viewers – to hog the spotlight.
Last month’s Mexico Open, which saw American rookie Jake Knapp claim his maiden tour title, also marked a fourth consecutive Sunday where viewership dropped compared to last year.
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