Even absent Tiger Woods, PGA Tour ratings still surged last Sunday.
Last Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour Wyndham Championship earned a 1.8 rating and 2.65 million viewers on CBS, up 50% in ratings and 45% in viewership from last year (1.2, 1.8M) and up 80% and 88% respectively from 2016 (1.0, 1.4M).
Brandt Snedeker‘s wire-to-wire win delivered the tournament’s highest rating and viewership since 2015, when a contending Tiger Woods lifted final round coverage to a 3.4 and 4.97 million.
Outside of 2015, Sunday’s telecast was the highest rated round of the Wyndham Championship since 2002 (2.1).
Of the 62 PGA Tour rounds on broadcast television this season, 44 have posted an increase in ratings and 47 have done so in viewership. Woods’ resurgence is largely responsible for the positive trend, with ratings and viewership up for 25 of the 26 rounds he has played.
Excluding telecasts involving Woods, the numbers are far more pedestrian. Out of 36 rounds, 19 have posted an increase in ratings and 22 have done so in viewership.
Third round coverage last Saturday pulled a 0.8 and 1.25 million, down a tick in ratings and 5% in viewership from last year (0.9, 1.31M) but up 14% and 29% respectively from 2016 (0.7, 971K).
Lead-in coverage on Golf Channel had a 0.35 and 508,000 on Saturday and a 0.48 and 724,000 on Sunday. There was no comparable lead-in coverage last year as Golf Channel aired the Solheim Cup.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 8.23]
