For much of this year, the PGA Tour and worldwide broadcasters have been concerned with declining viewership figures on TV in relation to professional golf.
With the odd exception, usually because of a tight finish, many regular PGA Tour events have averaged fewer than two million people tuning in to watch the Sunday climax – whether it be Peter Malnati’s heart-warming victory at the Valspar Championship or Matthieu Pavon’s stunning success at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Even in the big-ticket tournaments like The Players or The Masters, Scottie Scheffler’s victory in both wasn’t enough to prevent a significant drop-off in people watching the finish at home.
However, it certainly hasn’t all been bad news for golf broadcasters and the PGA Tour, and Rory McIlroy‘s walk-off win at last week’s Wells Fargo Championship proved that the end doesn’t even have to be that competitive to lure fans in front of their screens.
The Northern Irishman – who just a day later filed for divorce from wife, Erica – began last Sunday with a one-shot deficit to Xander Schauffele at the top but quickly turned the tables, going on to claim his fourth Wells Fargo Championship by five shots thanks to a six-under final round.
CBS has a big increase Sunday for Rory McIlroy’s win at Quail Hollow, with the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship drawing 2.778 million viewers. That’s up 34% from 2.073 million last year for Wyndham Clark’s win. Sunday peaked at 3.830 million. pic.twitter.com/WnZMtfzQ3nMay 14, 2024
The golf was fascinating from McIlroy, even if the contest fizzled out quite quickly around the turn. But nevertheless, figures from Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter showed that the interest of fans at home was still piqued by what went down at Quail Hollow.
In a post on social media, Carpenter said: “CBS has a big increase Sunday for Rory McIlroy’s win at Quail Hollow, with the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship drawing 2.778 million viewers. That’s up 34% from 2.073 million last year for Wyndham Clark‘s win. Sunday peaked at 3.830 million.”
The peak number was around 300,000 more than the average figure for Scheffler’s triumph at The Players and an astounding 1.5 million more than the average for the American’s Arnold Palmer Invitational score – another of the PGA Tour’s…
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