Despite a thrilling finish on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass, NBC drew just 3.5 million viewers for Sunday’s finale of the Players Championship, down 17 percent from last year’s final-round audience of 4.1 million.
Overall, the troubling numbers align with the downward trend this season for the PGA Tour. For instance, the final round of the Arnold Palmer checked in with just 2.3 million, down 30 percent from last year’s 3.3 million.
Some are blaming Scottie Scheffler, who critics argue – despite being the world No.1 – has little in the way of charisma and is generally considered a bore to watch.
“He’s too nice to be interesting,” my reality show-addicted wife tells me.
Yet, how can Scheffler be blamed as he won both the 2024 (3.5m) and 2023 (4.1m) editions of the Players?
In reality, most experts blame the bleeding of TV viewers on the fracturing of professional golf, where about half of the game’s marquee stars (Rahm, Koepka, DJ) and its most familiar names (Phil, Bubba, Sergio) now play on the Saudi-backed tour.
For instance, of the top-50 ranked players in the world following the 2022 Players Championship – two weeks before LIV Golf launched, twenty-one (21) players are now part of the breakaway league, including Jon Rahm (1), Cameron Smith (6), Dustin Johnson (10), Bryson DeChambeau (12), Louis Oosthuizen (13), Tyrrell Hatton (15), Joaquin Niemann (18), Brooks Koepka (21), Abraham Ancer (20), Paul Casey (24), Jason Kokrak (27), Patrick Reed (28), Kevin Na (30), Thomas Pieters (31), Talor Gooch (32), Harold Varner (40), Marc Leishman (42), Matthew Wolff (43), Phil Mickelson (45), Sergio Garcia (49), and Cameron Tringale (50). That doesn’t even include fan favorites and familiar names like Martin Kaymer, Branden Grace, Graeme McDowell, Bubba Watson, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood, and Charl Schwartzel, among others.
Does the exclusion of those names from PGA Tour fields help or hurt with the TV ratings?
Meanwhile, before the back-to-back wins by Scheffler, the PGA Tour was already enduring something of an identity crisis with little-knowns and journeymen seemingly winning every week. Even the two victories by known “stars” (Wyndham Clark and Hideki Matsuyama) were not exactly best-case scenarios for PGA Tour brand building. First, Clark’s win occurred at the rain-shortened Pebble Beach Pro-Am which didn’t even include a final round, while the Japanese star, despite spending the last decade-plus on the U.S. tour, continued to talk through an interpreter at Riviera.
Additionally, the most familiar and marketable names who remain on the PGA Tour – Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland – have yet to win and are barely contending in 2024.
Bottomline: the reunification can’t come soon enough.
NBC draws 3.5M viewers for Scottie Scheffler's win in the Players Championship (per @SportsTVRatings), down from 4.1M last year.
Two years ago: 2.9M for Sunday coverage (Cam Smith won on a Monday).
2021: 4.6M for Justin Thomas. pic.twitter.com/pfMbbvtPO8
— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) March 19, 2024
