Wow … what on earth is going on in the world of golf?
It had a fantastic finish with a superstar holding the trophy at the end, the two main tools to have a successful televised sporting event, but for some reason, the PGA Championship’s final round Sunday suffered god-awful ratings.
South Florida’s very own Brooks Koepka landed the victory after pulling away from both Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler, finishing 9-under to win his fifth career major.
Broadcasted on CBS, the round tallied 4.52 million viewers with a 2.6 rating.
Compared to 2022, the PGA Championship took a 14% decline in viewership, while dipping 16% in the ratings.
The drop in numbers caused the PGA Championship to draw its lowest ratings in 15 years, according to Sports Media Watch, going all the way back to 2008 when the tournament was competing with the Olympics.
PGA Championship final round is least-watched in 15 years, viewership peaks during Michael Block’s putt: https://t.co/0qAigf1oly
— Sports Media Watch (@paulsen_smw) May 23, 2023
This is wild.
Now a lot of people are going to say the PGA Championship took the dip because of streaming and new ways of watching television, and that may be true to some degree, but it’s a bad look regardless considering the rivalry they have with LIV Golf. And by the way, these numbers give LIV leverage.
I blogged about LIV recently regarding them no longer releasing their television ratings, and though it might not be as embarrassing, the PGA then takes a hit with their prestigious tournament … talk about lighting back up a rivalry that I thought died. (RELATED: Cleveland Guardians’ Will Brennan Kills Bird After Slamming It With Line Drive)
And just like that, we have a war again — I’m game!