Viewing figures for the PGA Tour’s season finale at East Lake were well down on last year, according to a report by Sports Business Journal.
Viewing figures for the PGA Tour’s season finale at East Lake do not paint a pretty picture.
According to Sports Business Journal reporter Josh Carpenter, 2.7m viewers tuned in to watch World No.1 Scottie Scheffler triumph in Atlanta to cap off a remarkable season.
That’s 500,000 down from last year when Norway’s Viktor Hovland claimed his maiden FedEx Cup title with a commanding five-shot win over Xander Schauffele.
It’s important to note that Carpenter’s figures do not include streaming.
But still, the 13% decline is worrying and will cause concern at PGA Tour HQ in Ponte Vedra Beach.
The Tour will likely point out that, as opposed to last year’s finale, the Tour Championship was played over Labor Day weekend.
The $100m tournament also went up against the first week of college football.
That being said, a number of golf users on X slammed the sorry state of affairs given the trend shows no signs of abating.
NBC draws 2.7M viewers for Scottie Scheffler’s four-shot win in the Tour Championship on Sunday (no streaming included).
That’s down 13% from last year: 3.1M on CBS when Viktor Hovland won by five (not on Labor Day weekend). pic.twitter.com/LMqK1jqDrV
— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) September 4, 2024
Here’s some comments:
“There are so many obvious solutions to pro golf but they just choose not to solve it. Head scratching.”
“That could’ve been a great event, but all the drama was removed with the ridiculous format.”
“The Tour generally is ignoring its issues and fans are losing interest. Adding to that is that this is a cash giveaway disguised as a event. It is an absurd end to the season. They got better numbers than I expected. Collin won.”
“Congrats to all involved with the current state of pro golf.”
“As many people who know way more about this than me have said, the Tour Championship is a broken property. It is cool that the biggest names are all playing, sure, but the format is terrible. All of the majors and Olympics are over. I love golf and don’t care much about it.”
Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler
What other TV viewing figures were down?
Viewer numbers for the final round of The Masters were down 20%, according to data relating to CBS’ coverage.
Similarly, numbers were down 17% when Scheffler triumphed at the Players in March, with just 3.5m tuning in to watch.
Xander Schauffele’s epic Open win also saw a nine-year low in terms of viewers and experienced a 4% dip.
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