Tiger Woods may not command the same audience he did four of five years ago, but the most recognizable athlete on the planet can still pump up the ratings like nobody else.
Thanks to a few close calls for Woods, The Golf Channel drew record high ratings for its coverage of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship last week. On Friday, The Golf Channel drew a 2.0 cable rating with 1.8 million viewers — an all time record for the network. Excluding Friday afternoon coverage of The Masters and The PGA Championship, the 2.0 for the Match Play Championship is the highest rating for a golf broadcast on cable in the past two years.
That performance came off of a 1.7 cable rating for Thursday coverage, and a 1.3 rating for first day coverage on Wednesday. The 1.7 rating tied the previous record for The Golf Channel, and the 1.3 is the highest rating ever for the first day of the Accenture Match Play Championship.
