PGA Tour TV Ratings: Farmers Insurance Open Continues Impressive Trend

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There's been plenty in the golfing news recently and two big storylines at Torrey Pines helped the Farmers Insurance Open draw in a bumper TV audience.

Golf Channel is reporting its broadcast of Justin Rose's wire-to-wire victory saw an increase in viewers of 102% from last year's Farmers Insurance Open.

And it's a bit of a trend for Golf Channel which says that the last two PGA Tour events it has broadcast, the Farmers and the American Express, doubled last year's ratings.

It was a strong showing across the board at Torrey Pines, with CBS averaging 2.36 million viewer over the weekend, representing a 63% increase on last year, while an average of 2.9m watched Rose complete his dominant success on Sunday, up from 1.7m for last year's final round.

And more positive news came from ESPN for the PGA Tour Live simulcast on the opening two days ahead of Golf Channel's coverage.

Thursday averaged 381,000 viewers and Friday's second round brought in just over 400,000 for a pretty healthy couple of days.

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They're solid numbers all round for the PGA Tour, which no doubt reflect the two big stories that grabbed the public attention - firstly Koepka making a surprisingly swift return from LIV Golf.

Koepka's battle to make the cut will have kept golf fans watching on, while 45-year-old Rose's brilliance also seemed to capture the imagination.

Despite his advancing years the Englishman led the rest of his PGA Tour rivals a merry dance and almost lapped the field on his way to a record winning score at Torrey Pines.

The PGA Tour now moves on to TPC Scottsdale and the chaos that is the WM Phoenix Open, which it will hope can attract even more viewers tuning in to see all the madness unfold.

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Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.

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