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Pebble Beach rerun gets 3 times more linear TV viewers than LIV Golf

Wyndham Clark holds the trophy after winning the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif., Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. Clark was declared the 54-hole winner at the first full signature event of the PGA Tour season when rain and dangerous wind postponed the final round on Sunday, and then tour and Monterey County officials decided it was too dangerous to play on Monday.(AP Photo/Nic Coury)

El chileno Joaquín Niemann, con el trofeo de campeón individual del torneo LIV Golf en Mayakoba en el campo de golf El Camaleón en Playa del Carmen, México, el domingo 4 de febrero del 2024. (Montana Pritchard/LIV Golf vía AP)

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LIV Golf had the stage to itself when the PGA Tour’s final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was postponed because of weather and the NFL was off before Super Bowl week.

According to Nielsen TV data, the PGA Tour still attracted three times as many viewers Sunday while showing a rerun of the third round.

LIV Golf Mayakoba, where Joaquin Niemann won a four-hole playoff in near darkness over Sergio Garcia, pulled in 432,000 viewers on the CW Network, its most ever.

Pebble Beach had over 1.21 million viewers on CBS for a rerun of Wyndham Clark setting the course record with a 60 in the third round. The tour canceled the final round later Sunday evening and Clark was declared the winner.

Saturday’s live coverage brought 1.91 million viewers for Pebble Beach, compared with 168,000 for Mayakoba.

The average audience for the final round of LIV Golf Mayakoba was 48% higher than the previous year. Along with the four-hole playoff, Masters champion Jon Rahm made his LIV debut and was tied for the lead until a bogey-bogey finish.

This is the third season of LIV Golf. It plays this week in Las Vegas, site of the Super Bowl, with a 54-hole event ending on Saturday. The PGA Tour is 300 miles away at the WM Phoenix Open.

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Golf fans shocked as latest LIV Golf vs PGA Tour TV ratings are revealed

Golf fans react as TV ratings are revealed from last weekend's LIV Golf Mayakoba and PGA Tour's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Golf fans have been reacting to the latest TV ratings following LIV Golf 's first event of the season at Mayakoba and the PGA Tour 's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which was reduced to a 54-hole tournament following a final-round washout.

With no live golf played on Sunday over on the PGA Tour, it left the door wide open for golf fans to head over to The CW Network should they so wish and view the final round of LIV Golf Mayakoba in Mexico. 

It was also a particularly strong leaderboard heading into the final round too, with Joaquin Niemann leading by two strokes over LIV Golf debutant and arguably the best player in the world, Jon Rahm . 

But despite everything aligning perfectly for LIV Golf in the final round, unfortunately its viewing figures on The CW Network were close to five times less to that of CBS Sports ' third-round coverage of the PGA Tour's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am , which ended up being the final round due to bad weather.

Wyndham Clark was crowned the winner after surging into the third-round read following a stunning 60 , which marked the lowest-ever round at famed Pebble Beach.

It was not the lowest round of the weekend, however, as Niemann fired a course-record 59 in the first round at Mayakoba. 

While Clark's round marked the lowest of his blossoming PGA Tour career, the 60 did not count as an official record at Pebble Beach as a result of preferred lies being in place. 

Niemann ended up defeating his former mentor Sergio Garcia at the fourth extra hole in darkness over at Mayakoba, while Rahm led his new Legion XIII to a four-stroke team victory despite throwing away the individual title when finding the penalty area with his tee shot down the 17th. 

PGA Tour trounces LIV Golf

According to official TV ratings from the weekend's action in the men's professional game, CBS had 1.951m viewers during Saturday's third round.

In comparison, LIV Golf's second-round action on Saturday drew 168,000 viewers on The CW Network but an improved 432,000 viewers on Sunday. 

Pebble Beach PGA (Saturday), CBS: 1.951m LIV Golf (Saturday), CW: 168K LIV Golf (Sunday), CW: 432K https://t.co/I7csAFZ3vK — Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) February 6, 2024

What must be taken into consideration is the above numbers do not include streaming available on both the LIV Golf Plus App and the LIV Golf YouTube channel. 

While these figures have not been made official, LIV Golf's final round YouTube video has amassed 165,000 views. 

One big positive for LIV Golf is the fact its final-round coverage of the first event of the season on The CW Network was superior to that of its first event in 2023, also at Mayakoba, which had 291,000 viewers. 

So it's not all bad news for LIV Golf. 

Golf fans have been reacting to the latest TV ratings on LIV Golf and the PGA Tour over on social media, so we encourage you to head over to our GolfMagic post on both Facebook and Twitter and get involved in the debate. 

Some fans think its very unfair to compare the two Tours without knowing how many viewers came through the LIV Golf Plus App, while others believe LIV Golf will never reach PGA Tour TV ratings no matter how much money is pumped into the Saudi-backed circuit. 

Which tournament did you watch last weekend? Did you tune into the final round of LIV Golf Mayakoba? Share your thoughts and comments over on the GolfMagic social media channels. 

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Rory McIlroy, citing ratings dip, says deal should 'speed up'

Rory McIlroy hopes golf's top players can compete against each other sooner rather than later. (0:51)

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- With TV ratings falling so far this season, four-time major champion Rory McIlroy said Wednesday that he wants the "train to speed up" regarding the PGA Tour finalizing a deal with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to reunify men's professional golf.

"These bigger signature events that we tried to create, they worked last year," McIlroy said at TPC Sawgrass, the site of this week's 50th Players Championship. "The ratings were up, and it was great. But you look at the ratings this year for those events in the United States and everything's down."

According to published reports, TV ratings for the final round of last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida, where world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler ran away with a 5-stroke victory, were down 30% compared to the final round in 2023. TV ratings for final-round coverage of the Genesis Invitational on Feb. 18 -- when 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama returned to the winner's circle -- were down about 5%.

The PGA Tour created the eight signature events, with purses of at least $20 million and smaller fields to bring together its best golfers more often. The remaining four signature events are the RBC Heritage, Wells Fargo Championship, Memorial Tournament and Travelers Championship.

"For whatever reason, [the signature events] are not quite capturing the imagination this year compared to last year," McIlroy said.

The Sports Business Journal reported that amateur Nick Dunlap's improbable victory at the American Express in January was the lone PGA Tour event this season that had increased viewership compared to 2023.

"It's sort of been the same across the board with some of these bigger events," McIlroy said. "I think fans are getting fatigued of it, and I think the more and more we go down this route, the more people are just going to tune in four times a year [for the major championships], which is no good for anyone -- no good for golf. That just can't happen, so we need to figure it out."

On Tuesday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan told reporters that he and partners from Strategic Sports Group met with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan in Saudi Arabia in January and that talks with the PIF had "accelerated." The PIF is financing the rival LIV Golf League, which has poached several top players from the PGA Tour, including reigning major championship winners Jon Rahm (Masters) and Brooks Koepka (PGA Championship).

McIlroy believes damage to the sport's reputation will continue as long as the best players in the world continue competing on different circuits.

"You fight for so long and then you just get fatigued and tired of it," McIlroy said. "I think we're all sort of sick of the fighting at this point. That's why I've been so adamant that we need to figure out a way to unify the game, get everyone back together and all move forward. That's easier said than done, but I think that would be the best for all of us."

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Max homa asked jay monahan if he was nervous about pga tour tv ratings and the answer was holistic, share this article.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Just two weeks after capturing top honors at the Farmers Insurance Open, his sixth victory on the PGA Tour, Max Homa had the ear of commissioner Jay Monahan.

Homa had heard that one of the Tour’s events suffered from low TV ratings and, with changes to the schedule coming yet again, he asked the commish if he was concerned about the numbers.

The response was enlightening.

“(Monahan) said, first and foremost, that just straight-up TV ratings isn’t the way the world works anymore,” Homa recalled on Tuesday during his news conference before the Players Championship. “If you think about the Waste Management, as he put it, there’s so much fanfare. … and this is corny, but all the celebrities and people who aren’t in the game of golf intimately that are out there and sharing it via social media or with their friends is boosting not only the PGA Tour but golf in general, which I think is great. So that was quite interesting.

“Then, of course, a day or two later he sent me the final ratings of it and it was I think the highest event. I can’t remember what day, Saturday or Sunday, but it was the highest-viewed event since the Players the year prior. So I thought that was a really good sign.”

Homa, who has grown into his role as one of the leaders of the recent top-heavy PGA Tour movement, missed the players meeting that took place early Tuesday but added that he’s been to more meetings in the last year than he had in any previous one. He also noted that he’s been picking the brain of Monahan, trying to better understand the Tour’s strategy.

“I think it’s easy for us to, as players, to look at these events and say, man, this is working great, like look at the last few designated events and the finishes and the players battling against each other and the leaderboards and just all of it, and it just seems so great,” Homa said. “I would assume that that would mean great ratings and great attention, but we don’t know that.

“So I kind of lean on, since I’ve had this conversation with Jay, where he can kind of continue to show me, not just explain, but show me that it is doing a great job, and again, I know I’m probably sounding like I just keep reiterating myself, but the reason I love this product model is because I’m a fan of golf. I love watching golf and I’ve loved watching golf since I was a little kid. That’s why I play it.”

Max Homa walks from the green of the 15th hole during the final round of the 2023 WM Phoenix Open. (Photo: Allan Henry/USA TODAY Sports)

Despite new parental responsibilities — he and his wife, Lacey, welcomed their first child, Cam, on Oct. 30, 2022 — and a never-ending golf news cycle, Homa has maintained his focus on the course, posting a pair of victories and five top-4 finishes in the young season.

But he’s still squarely invested in the Tour’s future, as is evidenced by his inquisitive time with Monahan.

“My attention is of course on my performances and being the best me I can be, but it’s also on making sure that golf is thriving, and as I’m on the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour’s thriving and that people are watching it, because I love this game and I want other people to get involved and love this game and watch it,” Homa said. “I don’t want to put up or be a part of a product that people find to be boring and stale.

“So I am very much about what we’re doing and these meetings and pushing the envelope and making changes that benefit the golf fan, because again, I am a golf fan.”

And after spending time with Monahan, Homa seems firmly convinced that the again-revamped schedule, this time with small-field, no-cut elevated events, will help players at the top, but also those looking up into the game’s upper echelon.

“I’ve really racked my brain on this quite a bit and I don’t see how this isn’t better for every member of this Tour,” Homa said. “I think it makes it more competitive at the top. It has a bigger pot of gold at the end of the competitive rainbow for the guys at the maybe just outside the designated event area going into next year.”

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Masters TV Ratings for Sunday’s Final Round Down 20% From 2023

• Author: John Schwarb

Scottie Scheffler made history Sunday at the Masters in winning his second green jacket, but fewer watched the proceedings than a year ago.

According to Josh Carpenter of the Sports Business Journal , the final-round viewership for CBS on Sunday was 9.589 million, down 20 percent from 2023 when Jon Rahm won by four shots over Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson.

Golf viewership continues to drop: CBS drew 9.589M viewers for the final round of the Masters on Sunday, down 20% from last year. Scottie Scheffler's four-shot win was the second-largest deficit of the season. Lowest final round since 2021 (9.450M for Hideki Matsuyama's win) pic.twitter.com/gZsrJ1ZUam — Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) April 16, 2024

Part of the dip is due to the fact that last year's final round fell on Easter Sunday, which meant a bump of 21% in out-of-home viewership. This year's final round received only a 9% out-of-home increase.

Like Rahm, Scheffler also won by four shots, as his pursuers fell back with miscues before and around Amen Corner , making the final few holes relatively drama-free for the world No. 1, who won for the third time in his last three starts. 

Among those wins was a second consecutive triumph at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship. But that did not deliver ratings either, as the final round had the lowest rating for NBC in a decade .

That continued a trend for Tour ratings this year, as pro golf’s schism continues into a third year with two circuits: the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. 

“If you look at the TV ratings of the PGA Tour this year, they’re down 20 percent across the board. That’s a fifth. That’s big ... 20 percent’s a pretty jarring number,” Rory McIlroy said earlier this month at the Valero Texas Open.

ESPN reported its best rating in nine years for Thursday’s first round and that its Friday coverage was up 69% from 2023. Tiger Woods was playing during both of those broadcast windows.

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Report: PGA Tour ratings increase for NBC, CBS and Golf Channel

Nbc racks up tad of 2.27m viewers across seven pga tour events this season..

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The PGA Tour’s viewership on US broadcasters NBC, Golf Channel and CBS has increased during the ongoing 2023 season, according to Sports Business Journal (SBJ) .

• Through seven events, viewership on NBC increased three per cent year-over-year (YoY) with a total audience delivery (TAD) of 2.27 million viewers
• The Honda Classic and WGC Dell Match Play on NBC were the most-watched in four years
• The Valspar Championship hit a five-year high, with 2.59 million viewers tuning in to NBC for the final round
• Golf Channel has seen a nine per cent YoY jump in its audience through 15 events, notching up a TAD of 519,000 viewers
• CBS has averaged 2.59 million viewers for four PGA Tour events, excluding the Masters, marking a four per cent jump YoY
• The average weekly digital visitors to the PGA Tour’s website rose by eight per cent YoY in Q1 2023, while the number of iOS downloads of the tour’s app were up 60 per cent 
• Video views across the tour’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube channels were up 31 per cent compared to last year
• ESPN reported that streaming of PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ was up “significantly” in Q1, adding that the Genesis Invitational and Players Championship were the most-watched PGA Tour events ever on ESPN+.

This season, the PGA Tour increased its prize funds and put more FedExCup points on offer for several new ‘designated’ events in response to the breakaway LIV Golf circuit. Viewership numbers for those events have seen strong increases over 2022.

SBJ notes that two of the PGA Tour’s tournaments scheduled against LIV Golf’s three events saw a decline in viewership. The Valspar Championship, however, grew its audience for the final round by five per cent, despite going up against LIV Tucson.

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The viewership figures for the PGA Tour will be well-received by its broadcast partners. The numbers also come a little over a month on from the tour announcing a shakeup of its schedule that will see cuts scrapped and tournament formats more closely aligned with those on LIV Golf at certain events from the start of next year.

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Golf has become a sport without needle-movers

Katelyn Mulcahy

In the aftermath of Nick Dunlap's shocking win at The American Express, the first by an amateur on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson in 1991, we learned something pretty remarkable about the TV ratings:

On paper, this seems like a perfectly wrapped comparison. The surface conclusion is that in a season when early PGA Tour ratings have been down, a player most people had never heard of drove more viewership at the exact same tournament, at the exact same time of year, than a golfer who just reportedly collected at least $300 million to join LIV Golf. From there, it doesn't take a ton of brainpower to arrive at the premise laid out in the headline of this piece, which can be outlined in two easy steps:

1. Beyond Tiger Woods, the perpetual and eternal needle-mover, golf audiences broadly don't care about any specific player. (If your initial reaction here is, "but Rahm isn't like Rory or Spieth," just hang tight a moment.)

2. A good story, rather than any single personality, is what resonates with golf audiences. That story can range from something as complex as "an amateur is about to win a PGA Tour event" to something as simple as "we're playing at a major championship with all its attendant historical import."

From there, you can make a convincing leap to a third conclusion:

3. The LIV defections, like Rahm's, look increasingly absurd if you only tie the dollar sign ($300 million) to the player's actual market value (nowhere even close to $300 million), and only make sense as a ploy to crack golf's foundations as a means of getting in on the organizational level; i.e., you're paying guys like Rahm or Cam Smith to disappear from public view until the PGA Tour capitulates. BUT, despite an appearance of diluting the product, the individual players might matter so little that it's not actually doing any real damage beyond perception, since more people tuned in to watch some kid named Nick Dunlap on a given week than Jon Rahm, even before he left for a league that nobody is watching in the first place.

Now, let's pause and take a breath. Before we become full-fledged converts to the ideas laid out above, it's worth acknowledging a few counterpoints. First, Jon Rahm hadn't yet won the Masters when he played the Amex in 2023 and drew the accompanying TV ratings. He was a major winner, and one of the top players in the world, but certainly his profile increased after Augusta by some quantifiable amount. The question is, how much? How many more people were likely to tune in to watch him in contention at a regular PGA Tour stop after his Masters win than before it?

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Unfortunately, since Rahm didn't win on the PGA Tour after Augusta, it's hard to gauge. The best I could do is look at ratings for the final round of the Mexico Open, when Tony Finau beat him by three shots. There, the final-round numbers were comparable to the Wells Fargo and Byron Nelson, but lower than the Memorial, the RBC Heritage, and the RBC Canadian Open. By comparison to 2022 Mexico Open final-round ratings, the overall number was slightly down, 1.36 vs. 1.42. Rahm won in 2022, so that provides a direct comparison between his pre- and post-Masters phases. In other words, not much needle moving to be seen.

Speaking of the Canadian Open, you may remember that Nick Taylor, a Canadian, won it with one of the more memorable shots of the entire 2023 season. As it turned out, that final round drew higher ratings than any Canadian Open since 2000, which was won by—you guessed it—Tiger Woods. (It was the only time he won that event.) The important note here, though, is that it did better than Rory McIlroy's win a year earlier. I say it's "important" because another clear line of argument against the conclusions drawn about Rahm above is that Rahm himself may not have moved the needle in 2023, but Rory McIlroy or Jordan Spieth definitely do. Well, not Rory necessarily, at least not in comparison to another low-profile player named Nick who happened to deliver a great story at the perfect time.

What the numbers show, with great consistency, is that golf's modest TV ratings are no longer greatly influenced by any individual player, with a few minor fluctuations that you can potentially attribute to outliers such as Spieth or McIlroy. But even those fluctuations are no more, and often less, than the bumps you see for Nick Dunlap or Nick Taylor, or for storylines like LIV vs. PGA Tour that play out at major championships.

So let's say the initial premise is true. Where does this leave golf as a sport? The good news is that at least last year, PGA Tour ratings were static to slightly improved, meaning that people like me who worry about a fatigue effect from the LIV drama don't have to go full Chicken Little just yet. The prospect of a new Tiger Woods emerging, who could capture America's interest the same way, was always far-fetched, and indeed it hasn't remotely come true. But golf succeeding by committee is still feasible, and the high tide that swept for the recreational game during the COVID-19 pandemic provides so much opportunity. The ultimate lesson is not that professional golf is doomed. Rather, in the current era, so much depends on the story rather than the player, and increasingly the story is not driven by the player; or at least not in the usual, Tiger-centric way.

What will matter, sooner rather than later, is making sure the best players compete in the same places, because even if someone like Rahm or McIlroy is currently over-valued in terms of how much money they make against how much revenue they can realistically drive, golf will suffer from the perception that the schism dilutes fields everywhere except the majors. And if the PGA Tour can't right the ship, you could start falling into a dark place where the next tour TV contract, for instance, could look shocking in all the wrong ways.

Real, tough competition is all part of the story; the game itself needs to be compelling, because by comparison to the unrepeatable icon that is Tiger Woods, hard data shows that the players individually are not. They are all pieces of the broad tapestry, and the tapestry has enough power to move the needle by itself … but only if the people making the big decisions are smart enough to stop the bleeding, and to recognize the source from which golf's value in 2024 is truly derived.

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‘Budget Cut After Budget Cut’: Cold Reality Behind PGA Tour’s TV Ratings Failure Exposed by Paul Azinger

T he PGA Tour is losing the grasp it had on the golf world. What happened is when LIV Golf debuted, it poached many high-profile players from the Tour, and it has continued to do so, the latest defectors being Jon Rahm , Tyrrell Hatton, and Adrian Meronk. The exit of these key players from the Tour had left fans bewildered, they were left with two options: whether to watch the PGA Tour events or their favorite players. Many chose the latter.

Which has significantly affected the PGA Tour’s audience count. The latest data about Genesis Invitational claims a 5% drop in the ratings from last year, and The Match also had 34% lower viewers tuning in, highlighting that the Tour or broadcaster cannot attract the public like before. In his recent interview, Paul Azinger reveals how the broadcasting channels are combating the low viewer count.

Paul Azinger reveals the gleaming reality of NBC suffering with a low viewer count

NBC did not renew Paul Azinger’s contract in November 2023 because they could not be on the same page. The broadcast channel offered Azinger a contract with comparatively less pay than before. Per his latest interview with Golf Week, it was done to keep broadcasting less expensive. Azinger said, “There was no plan going forward except to make the broadcast less expensive.”

The golf analyst revealed that since he joined NBC in 2018, “there was just budget cut after budget cut.” The channel had one goal, which “was to make the broadcast cost less money,” because the returns were not as large when the audience count was low. How did it affect the office and broadcasting? Azinger detailed, “We went from having towers to all in the same booth. We eliminated a couple of drones.”

In the process of making things affordable, the channel also cut down on many things. The former pro said, “Occasionally, you lose the airplane or the blimp,” then “lose the speed shots ” and then the big camera that covers the ball from “the tee as it flies over the water.” Many things had been amiss from the broadcast. But where will the money be going? Azinger claimed, “They’re gonna pour all their money into the Players.”

The lack of interest from the public can account for many things, like the commercial load on NBC becoming a hassle for the audience. Moreover, with the cameras missing a golfer’s putt or moving slowly, the golf world has shared its grievances time and again. However, while the PGA Tour struggles, its counterpart, LIV Golf, has recently reached its best viewership.

LIV Golf reaches millions for LIV Golf Jeddah

It was not always like this; however, after Anthony Kim stepped up and became the Tiger Woods for LIV Golf, the viewership boosted through the roof. Kim teed up for his first professional round after 12 years in Jeddah on Friday. The people were curious to see Kim play and as a result, many turned to LIV Golf Jeddah instead of the Cognizant Classic.

Read More: Even Tiger Woods Can’t Help PGA Tour From Sinking? Genesis Invitational a Big Failure, Per Reports

Per NUCLR Golf’s tweet, in the opening round, the latest broadcast partner of LIV Golf, Caffeine TV had 2 million watching on its platform . On the other hand, the YouTube stream for the same attracted 208k people tuning in. Hitting the million mark is probably the highest for LIV Golf. But the PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic had 260k people watching it. Proving that the intrigue for the breakaway circuit has been slowly rising.

Will the PGA Tour suffer through the hands of LIV in rating? Only time will tell.

Read More: The Anthony Kim Gamble Can Pay Huge Dividends for LIV Golf, Just Not Immediately

The post ‘Budget Cut After Budget Cut’: Cold Reality Behind PGA Tour’s TV Ratings Failure Exposed by Paul Azinger appeared first on EssentiallySports .

Jon Rahm's longing for American Express, West Coast PGA Tour events shows some LIV discontent

Is Jon Rahm having an existential crisis?

Maybe not, but the two-time major champion and two-time winner of The American Express in La Quinta is certainly not on what is believed to be the script for most LIV golfers. That script is supposed to go something like, well, I like what LIV does, it is better than the PGA Tour, it’s not all about the money and we are trying to grow the game.

Rahm keeps wandering off the script, especially in the last month.

At the Masters, for instance, Rahm talked about how LIV needs to strongly consider going to a 72-hole format rather than the 54-hole format that is one of its distinguishing characteristics. One of the criticisms of LIV is that format, though there are others who have no problem with it. Rahm, however, would like to see it changed .

Then came the Masters itself, where Rahm didn’t play well. And he looked miserable in Butler Cabin waiting to put the green jacket on new champion Scottie Scheffler.

More: What's the reason behind Masters' sharp decline in TV ratings? There might be several reasons

Now comes Rahm doubling down on comments he made earlier this year about wishing he could still play in some of his favorite PGA Tour events. Obviously, he still gets to play in the four majors, which are not controlled by the PGA Tour. But when he left the PGA Tour in December to join LIV, it meant being suspended from other PGA Tour events.

It might not make anyone at The American Express feel better, but their tournament is one that Rahm misses. While saying he’s playing all 14 LIV events this year, the four majors and the Ryder Cup, Rahm laments the open weeks of the calendar where he could be back in his favorite places, including the Coachella Valley.

Loving California

“There’s some PGA Tour events that if it’s not conflicting with my LIV schedule I’d love to go play. I’ve said numerous times and I’ll say it again, Palm Springs (The American Express), Torrey Pines (in San Diego), Phoenix, L.A., if I’m allowed to be able to play, the Players. Those are events that if I could, I would love to play.”

Three of those tournaments -- The American Express, The Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego and the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles -- are tournaments Rahm has won. He has always expressed a love for West Coast events, in particular Torrey Pines and the city of San Diego.

So is this buyer’s remorse from Rahm, who signed with LIV for something reported to be just short of $600 million? Or is it just a guy who can’t help being honest, a trait that made him popular with his fellow players and media members when he played on the PGA Tour?

Either way, Rahm is making a case – whether he knows it or not – for the PGA Tour and LIV to reach a deal and get to it sooner rather than later. The PGA Tour began doling out equity money to its players this week, money aided by the tour’s $3 billion deal with Strategic Sports Group. But another deal with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Trust is out there, with talks ongoing. That deal could bring more money to the PGA Tour, but it could also work to unify a game that has been divided by defections from the PGA Tour to LIV.

Rahm’s jump to LIV in November and his inability to defend three PGA Tour titles in the first seven weeks of this season, including The American Express, seemed to be a tipping point for many fans. Since then, PGA Tour ratings have been down around 20 percent (the American Express ratings were actually up in January) and many fans have said they have lost some interest in the professional game.

Rahm certainly isn’t speaking for all LIV players when he talks about 72-hole tournaments and wanting to expand his schedule by playing a handful of PGA Tour events that he really enjoys. But for now Rahm is the biggest signing LIV has over the last two years short perhaps of Phil Mickelson in 2022. So when he talks with a certain discontent in his comments, the powers on both sides of the professional golf divide probably need to be listening.

Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at [email protected]. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Desert Sun.

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Everyone — including the players — is paying attention to TV ratings

Golf’s TV ratings have become a hot topic in recent weeks. So hot, some *players* are keeping tabs on who’s taking the lead.

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We don’t need Max Homa to know that golf’s TV ratings are big news these days. But it’s notable that Homa, whose primary job is to star in golf television, is paying attention to who’s watching.

If there is some common ground between LIV and the PGA Tour, it’s in the understanding that golf’s television ratings are a very big piece of the ongoing battle for golf supremacy — a battle Homa just so happens to have a growing stake in.

The 32-year-old pro has watched his audience multiply in size in recent years, particularly as his success on the PGA Tour has grown. In 2023, that growth culminated in his stepping onto the Tour’s Player Advisory Council, serving as an active voice on the latest round of Tour changes. But it wasn’t the shapeshifting schedule that piqued my interest in the 6-time winner while at TPC Sawgrass last week, it was his involvement in some of the notable golf TV changes we’ve seen in 2023.

It’s possible some golf fans know Homa was one of the driving forces behind the AirPod interview segments that have become a must-watch piece of golf TV in 2023 (it’s why he was also the first golfer to star in them). But at the Players, Homa revealed his interest in the TV product has gone well beyond the qualitative. In fact, Homa said, his interest in golf’s TV ratings has become something of a shared interest between himself and the man in charge, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.

“Yeah, I actually had a good discussion with Jay about this after Waste Management. I had read something that we had fairly low ratings at one of the events, and I was kind of asking him, does this concern you, considering the changes we’re about to make,” Homa said. “He said, first and foremost, that just straight-up TV ratings isn’t the way the world works anymore. If you think about the Waste Management — as he put it, so much fanfare, especially, and this is corny, all the celebrities and people who aren’t in the game of golf intimately that are out there and sharing it via social media or with their friends. [It’s] boosting not only the PGA Tour but golf in general, which I think is great. So that was quite interesting.”

How do LIV Golf’s TV ratings really compare to the PGA Tour?

It is quite interesting, particularly considering the careful line the Tour walks between appeasing its television partners (who pay a very pretty penny for the Tour’s media rights) and addressing the realities of sports viewership, which like the rest of the ratings world, has been in some level of decline over the last decade.

Of course, it helps the Tour that ratings have held steadier as of late — a product of both better recording metrics and a slower decline among the Tour’s core audience from traditional linear TV.

“Then of course a day or two later he sent me the final ratings [from the WM Phoenix Open] and it was I think the highest event, I can’t remember what day, Saturday or Sunday, but it was the highest viewed event since the Players the year prior,” Homa said. ”So I thought that was a really good sign.”

Another good sign for the Tour came just a few weeks later, when the Tour’s ratings from the Honda Classic walloped those of LIV Golf’s first 2023 event at Mayakoba. During the two weekend rounds, the average Tour audience during one minute of NBC’s coverage eclipsed that of the total reach of LIV’s CW broadcast.

That’s to say nothing of the Tour’s ratings during its first designated events, like the Phoenix Open, where strong leaderboards have helped to produce strong audiences.

“I think it’s easy for us to, as players, to look at these events and say, man, this is working great,” Homa said. ”Look at the last few designated events and the finishes and the players battling against each other and the leaderboards and just all of it, and it just seems so great.”

A point of clarification: Today's TV ratings release from LIV did NOT show better viewership numbers for Mayakoba. LIV is reporting the cumulative audience size of their 5-hour broadcast, while the numbers reported on Monday are the avg. audience size during 1 hour — James Colgan (@jamescolgan26) March 3, 2023

It’s easy to understand why Homa might have an increased interest. For the Tour, this year’s schedule is a massive gamble, particularly considering its TV partners are paying upwards of $600 million annually for the right to broadcast its events. If a supercharged product on designated event weeks isn’t worth the ratings fall-off from a diluted product on non-designated weeks, the Tour could find itself in trouble. So far, that hasn’t proven the case, but we won’t have concrete answers until later in the golf season.

“It’s hard,” Homa said. ”I would assume [the changes] would mean great ratings and great attention, but we don’t know that. So I kind of lean on, since I’ve had this conversation with Jay, where he can kind of continue to show me, not just explain, but show me that it is doing a great job.”

For Homa, it’s not the telling that’s the hard part, it’s the showing.

“I love this game and I want other people to get involved and love this game and watch it,” he said. “I don’t want to put up or be a part of a product that people find to be boring and stale. So I am very much about what we’re doing and these meetings and pushing the envelope and making changes that benefit the golf fan, because again, I am a golf fan.”

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James Colgan is a news and features editor at GOLF, writing stories for the website and magazine. He manages the Hot Mic, GOLF’s media vertical, and utilizes his on-camera experience across the brand’s platforms. Prior to joining GOLF, James graduated from Syracuse University, during which time he was a caddie scholarship recipient (and astute looper) on Long Island, where he is from. He can be reached at [email protected].

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2024 LIV Golf Adelaide schedule, field of players, teams, prize money, purse, live stream, TV schedule

Liv golf makes its way down under for its annual event in australia.

LIV Golf returns to the land down under for the first of two international events following the Masters. The 54-hole circuit once again makes its way to LIV Golf Adelaide, where the league enjoyed tremendous success in its inaugural showing a year ago. It was Talor Gooch running away with the individual title on LIV Golf this time last year, but this year it is Joaquin Niemann.

The young Chilean has been tremendous in 2024 with a couple of LIV Golf titles to his name and a strong showing at the year's first major championship. Fresh off a top-25 result at the Masters, Niemann hopes to keep the momentum rolling in Australia. 

Outdoing Niemann at the Masters and representing one of LIV Golf's highest finisher was the man who needs no introductions to Australian golf fans, Cameron Smith. The 2022 Champion Golfer of the Year claimed another top-10 finish at Augusta National and continued a streak of solid play for the Australian. Smith has now rattled off three straight quality outings with a playoff loss to Abraham Ancer in Hong Kong. He will hope to impress his fans again as he leads his Ripper GC squad into a home game.

Ripper GC and the rest of the teams are looking up to last year's champions, Crushers GC. Bryson DeChambeau's team has opened up a wide lead over the rest of the league in large part due to their captain's play. DeChambeau contended at the Masters before ultimately finishes T6 alongside Smith. On LIV Golf, DeChambeau has connected on four straight top 10s and will look to do a hair better this week as he eyes his third trophy.

Meanwhile, players like Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm hope to bounce back from mildly disappointing Masters, with others like Gooch, Tyrrell Hatton and Patrick Reed rounding out the action.

How to watch LIV Golf Adelaide

Event:  LIV Golf Adelaide | April 26-28 Purse:  $25 million Start time : 9:45 p.m. ET  Location:  The Grange Golf Club — Adelaide, Australia Viewing info:  Thursday - Saturday: 9:30 p.m. - 2:30 a.m. (CW App & LIV Golf Plus)

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