The latest sporting event to hit a historic viewership milestone is the PGA Championship.
Thursday’s opening round of the PGA Championship averaged a 0.9 rating and 1.47 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest opening round audience of the event since 2002 (1.8M). Ratings increased a tick and viewership 23% from last year (0.8, 1.2M).
Notably, ESPN’s Thursday coverage did not feature any of Tiger Woods’ live round, as that concluded prior to ESPN coming on-air at 2 PM ET.
The 20-year high can certainly be attributed to the addition of out-of-home viewing, but even that cannot fully explain the greater-than-usual interest in Thursday’s round. The 0.9 household rating — which by definition does not include out-of-home — was the highest for the first round since 2015 (1.0).
Leading into the telecast, an alternate presentation of the first round hosted by Michael Collins and new ESPN hire Joe Buck averaged 684,000 on ESPN — up 80% from the same window last year. The Buck-Collins presentation then shifted to ESPN2 and averaged just 96,000 opposite the traditional first round coverage on ESPN.
Las Vegas led all markets Thursday with a 1.4 rating, followed by Atlanta and Phoenix (1.3) and Jacksonville and Boston (1.2).
In other recent golf action, final round coverage of last week’s Byron Nelson tournament averaged a 1.8 and 2.85 million viewers on CBS — the highest rating and viewership for the tournament in five years (2017: 2.0, 2.94M). Third round coverage the previous day drew a 1.3 and 1.98 million, marking the tournament’s highest third round rating in six years (2016: 1.6).
[Nielsen estimates from ESPN, ShowBuzz Daily 5.17]
