The PGA Tour season ended on a high note, though that comes with a caveat.
Final round coverage of The Tour Championship, the final event of the PGA Tour FedEx Cup, had a 1.9 final rating and 3.0 million viewers on NBC Sunday afternoon — up 19% in ratings and 24% in viewership from last year (1.6, 2.4M) and up 36% and 50%, respectively, from 2014 (1.4, 2.0M).
Rory McIlroy‘s playoff win, which clinched the FedEx Cup, ranks as the highest rated and most-watched final round of the event since 2012 (2.0, 2.8M). Dating back to the start of the FedEx Cup in 2007, the 1.9 rating is the tournament’s fourth-highest final round rating — behind 2012, 2009 (3.0) and 2007 (3.0).
Those superlatives come with an important caveat. NBC’s ratings do not include the 1:30-3 PM ET period of the telecast, which was broken out as a separate program — earning a 0.9 rating and 1.3 million viewers. Last year’s numbers included the first 90 minutes.
Keeping that in mind, The Tour Championship was the first PGA event since the British Open to post an increase in final round ratings or viewership — snapping a streak of eight straight declines.
Saturday’s third round action pulled a 0.9 final rating and 1.3 million viewers, down 18% in ratings and 17% in viewership from last year (1.1, 1.6M) and down 40% and 38%, respectively, from 2014 (1.5, 2.1M).
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 9/27)
