Scottie Scheffler’s dominant PGA Championship victory was light on drama compared to the Masters — and certainly compared to his PGA experience a year ago — and unsurprisingly dipped in the ratings.
Sunday’s final round of the PGA Championship from Quail Hollow (N.C.) averaged 4.76 million viewers on CBS, down 4% from last year (4.96M), but up 5% from two years ago (4.52M).
Scheffler’s comfortable six-stroke win, which peaked with 6.9 million in the 5:45 PM ET quarter-hour, tops only 2023 as the least-watched final round of the tournament since 2008 — opposite the Beijing Summer Olympics (4.02M).
Final round coverage aired opposite an NBA playoff Game 7 for a second-straight year, trailing the competing Nuggets-Thunder game on ABC (6.34M). Since moving to the month of May in 2019, the PGA Championship has aired directly opposite the NBA Playoffs three times, winning the head-to-head only in 2021 — when Phil Mickelson won and the tournament coincided with Game 1s in the first round.
Third round action averaged 3.11 million on CBS Saturday, down 12% from a year ago. CBS is now averaging 3.64 million viewers for the full PGA TOUR season, up 13% from the same point last year (3.22M) and the network’s highest average at this point of a season since 2019.
On ESPN Friday, second round coverage averaged 1.3 million — down from last year’s 1.6 million on the day Scheffler was arrested trying to enter the host golf club in Louisville. Tiger Woods also played in last year’s second round.
