Even A Fluid Sunday Leaderboard, Nail-Biting Finish, And Wholesome Winning Moment Cannot Prevent Significant Drop In PGA Tour Viewing Figures

It is steadily becoming a noticeable and concerning pattern for broadcasters covering the PGA Tour of late - viewing figures are on the slide.

A week after Scottie Scheffler's stunning victory at The Players Championship was watched on TV by 17% fewer fans than the year before, an even greater drop was reportedly seen relating to the Valspar Championship as Peter Malnati scooped just his second-ever PGA Tour title.

Sunday's action had many of the ingredients golf fans should want to see at the sharp end of a tournament - it was rarely clear who was going to win after Keith Mitchell quickly blew an overnight two-shot lead, several recognizable names were in contention (including Cameron Young and Xander Schauffele), and the tournament took place at a perilously difficult but entertaining location in the Copperhead Course.

However, Sports Business Journal's Josh Carpenter stated that "NBC averaged 1.886m viewers during Malnati's win in the Valspar Championship on Sunday" - a startling 27% fall when comparing Taylor Moore's victory in the same tournament 12 months prior.

When Moore saw off Jordan Spieth and co. at Innisbrook Resort in March 2023, the US broadcaster averaged 2.594m. Similar figures were recorded in 2022 when Sam Burns tacked on his third PGA Tour crown and second Valspar Championship in a row (2.454m).

While the difference in viewership between The Players Championship and a classic PGA Tour event is always going to fall in favor of 'the fifth Major' due to its stacked field and iconic course, it could well be that the apathy fans are feeling in relation to golf's civil war is causing extra pain for the US-based tour's staple tournaments.

Yet, even the biggest events on the PGA Tour are not immune to fans' apparent dwindling interest in watching on TV.

According to Sports Media Watch, while the final round of the 2024 Players Championship was the most-watched PGA Tour event of this year, it was also the least-watched closing day in the last decade of The Players - with the exception of 2022 when the tournament finished on Monday due to weather delays.

As if to further highlight the issue the PGA Tour and broadcasters are facing, The Mexico Open at Vidanta in late February finished off a run of four consecutive Sundays where viewership dropped compared to last year.

The preceding tournaments were The Genesis Invitational (which also saw a 51% drop on the Thursday despite Tiger Woods returning), the WM Phoenix Open, and the weather-affected AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Meanwhile, the recent Arnold Palmer Invitational - also won by Scheffler - suffered a 30% falloff Year-on-Year in relation to TV viewing figures.

Rory McIlroy said in a recent interview that more focus on the game itself is needed to “re-engage” fans.

“If you look at the leaderboards, you look at the ratings, I felt like they really, really worked in 2023,” McIlroy said ahead of the Players Championship. “And for whatever reason, they’re not quite capturing the imagination this year compared to last year.

“I think, if I were to put my own perspective on it, it’s because fans are fatigued of what’s going on in the game. And I think we need to try to re-engage the fan and re-engage them in a way that the focus is on the play and not on talking about equity and all the rest of it.”