The PGA Tour hasn’t had a good season in terms of ratings.
At this year’s Players Championship, perhaps the best professional golf tournament since the 2022 U.S. Open, Scottie Scheffler came from behind to win the PGA Tour’s marquee event. His impressive 8-under 64 on Sunday finished one stroke ahead of Windham Clark and Brian Harman. Still, viewership was 3.5 million, down from 4.1 million a season ago, when Scheffler also won.
A similar trend was seen at the Valspar Championship the following week. Just 1.89 million people watched Peter Malnati’s win, down from 2.59 million the year before when Taylor Moore fended off Jordan Spieth.
So the question arises, why?
Looks like Rory McIlroy has an idea.
“If you look at the TV ratings for the PGA Tour this year, they’re down 20 percent across the board. That’s one-fifth. That’s a lot… 20 percent is pretty shocking,” McIlroy said. Ta.
“I don’t think the numbers for LIV are very good in terms of viewership either. I think with all the fighting and everything that’s happened in the last few years, people are just really tired of it. . It’s turning people away from men’s professional golf, and that’s not good for anyone.”
The rift between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf has alienated many golf fans and caused much infighting among players, fans, and experts alike. LIV has usurped much of the Tour’s best talent, most notably defending Masters champion Jon Rahm, who was dumped onto the Saudi-backed circuit last December for more than $400 million.
That’s why McIlroy and others are calling for a unified global tour. Phil Mickelson recently agreed with the concept.
But it will take time for all sides to come together.
So in the meantime, McIlroy pointed out, television ratings for this year’s major championships will be an accurate barometer of the state of the professional game.
“It’s going to be very interesting to see how the Grand Slam, or the Grand Slam, goes, because I think aside from Augusta, those things live in their own world,” McIlroy said. .
“It will be very interesting to see how the numbers for a major championship compare to other big events, because if the numbers are better and all the best players in the world are playing, then the debate To say OK, we need to undo this.
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“But on the flip side, even if the numbers aren’t that good, even if they don’t want to be in a four-man match, they say we need to bring everyone back because people are losing interest in the game.” There will be a discussion of “major championships”. I’m close to NBC and the people who really care about these things and the people who tune in to watch golf, so the situation needs to be fixed and it’s not sustainable. ”
Only one tournament on the PGA Tour has seen a year-over-year increase in viewership this year. That would be the American Express, where Nick Dunlap became the first amateur to win on tour since Mickelson in 1991.
It took a historic event for the tour to pay off, which was a big deal.
Even Scheffler’s unprecedented title defense at TPC Sawgrass didn’t result in a ratings bump, which is something the Tour brass in Ponta Vedra Beach should be concerned about.
But as McIlroy hinted, if the experience value of the PGA Championship, U.S. Open and British Open Championship all decline, the professional game as a whole will struggle to attract attention.
We won’t know until late July, but all signs point to the Tour, and golf as a whole, shooting itself in the foot during this debacle. Golf still has time to ease up, but the clock is ticking.
In an age where attention spans are shorter than ever due to social media, smartphones and other distractions, golf has little time to find a way to re-engage people. If golf doesn’t allow you to do that, then keep going. If that happens, the professional game will continue to be in a dangerous situation.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
