Worrying PGA Tour Trend Continues As Tour Championship TV Ratings Revealed

There was yet another blow to the PGA Tour as the trend of declining TV figures continued for Scottie Scheffler's Tour Championship victory

Scottie Scheffler at the Players Championship
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Paul Higham
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published

Continuing what's been a worrying trend this season, viewing figures for Scottie Scheffler's Tour Championship and FedEx Cup victory were well down on last year. 

Sports Business Journal reporter Josh Carpenter posted the figures on social media that showed NBC had 2.7m viewers for Scheffler's four-shot win at East Lake on Sunday.

Those are linear TV viewing figures and not including streaming, which is becoming an increasingly popular way for especially younger fans to watch golf.

But the 13% drop from the 3.1m that tuned in to CBS to watch Viktor Hovland win last year's Tour Championship will still be a concern at PGA Tour headquarters.

Scheffler had a few sticky spells but was comfortable enough when holding off Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala at East Lake to bag the huge $25m first prize and his eighth victory of an extraordinary season.

The World No.1 pocketed over $62m during the year as he won seven times on the PGA Tour including The Masters and The Players Championship, and also added an Olympic golf medal in Paris.

But whether that dominance has turned the TV audience off or not, figures have been trending downwards all season generally.

Perhaps the staggered scoring start of the PGA Tour's season finale that always gave Scheffler a big advantage may also not have helped.

Xander Schauffele with the Claret Jug after his win at The Open

(Image credit: Getty Images)

As opposed to Hovland's victory last year, this year's Tour Championship was played over Labor Day weekend, with people making the most of that and not sitting in front of their TV also a possible contributing factor.

Viewer numbers for the final round of The Masters were down 20% in April, although ESPN reported a six-year high for their coverage of the first two rounds at Augusta. 

Scheffler produced more brilliance to win The Players Championship which, although attracting far more viewers than the Tour Championship with 3.5m watching, was down 17% on the 2023 numbers.

Even Xander Schauffele's thrilling Open Championship success saw a nine-year low in terms of viewers and a 4% dip compared to last year.

Many players criticised the format at the Tour Championship but that only seems like part of the problem, and while digital streaming numbers may boost the overall picture, it's clear the trend is a worry.

Paul Higham
Paul Higham
Contributor

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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