TV Ratings Prove Tiger Woods Is Golf's Biggest Draw

published 12 March 2018

The 14-time major winner's appearance at the Valspar Championship drew huge numbers

TV Ratings Prove Tiger Woods Is Golf's Biggest Draw

The TV ratings from this weekend's Valspar Championship are in, and they are MASSIVE.

Woods' return has been highly anticipated and his good play at Innisbrook drew the viewers in.

NBC's final round coverage was rated at 5.11 - the highest non-major PGA Tour broadcast since the 2013 Players Championship.

It became the most streamed PGA Tour event EVER for the Golf Channel/NBC Sports network and the 4th most stream golf event for NBC Sports behind the 2016 and 2017 Open and 2016 Ryder Cup.

The final round coverage on NBC was up 28% on the last time Woods had the chance to win on a Sunday at the 2015 Wyndham.

There were 5.5 million live minutes streamed of Saturday's round 3 coverage of the Valspar Championship on Golf Channel and NBC Sports Digital. Those numbers are up an incredible 621% year on year.

NBC Sports' third round coverage earned a 3.26 rating which was up 181% on last year.

It was the highest rated broadcast of the Valspar Championship EVER and also the highest rated PGA Tour third round in 12 years.

Related: Tiger Woods What's in the bag?

The Golf Channel's third round coverage was rated 1.07, the highest since the 2013 Deutsche Bank Championship.

Woods shot a four-under-par 67 on Saturday to finish just one back of the lead heading into the final round.

He finished one back of Paul Casey after a 70 on Sunday.

PGA Tour Live's coverage actually crashed on Friday when Tiger briefly took the lead:

Friday's second round coverage was also the highest in the event's history.

Thursday's opening round was the highest-rated broadcast on the Golf Channel since the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open, barring the Majors and Players Championship.

One user commented on Twitter that Woods should receive a portion of the ad revenue:

Prior to the start of the tournament, the Valspar Championship told USA Today that they expected to sell 7-10,000 extra tickets per day because of Woods' presence.

As well as that, they added in an eighth entry gate, 6,000 extra parking spaces and 35 more shuttle buses to carry fans to the course.

The media centre was doubled in size, 90 extra porta loos were brought in and a new spectator bridge was installed on the 12th hole.

The Tiger Woods effect.

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Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!

Elliott is currently playing:

Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV

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