The TV ratings for last week's FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, the first of three FedEx Cup Playoff events, are in, and they're nothing short of abysmal when comparing them to last year's numbers. When comparing last year's finish to this year's, the drop-off between the numbers doesn't appear to make much sense, but the explanation for the bad ratings may be straightforward.
Lucas Glover took down Patrick Cantlay in a playoff during the 2023 FedEx St. Jude with 3.207 million tuning in to watch the event unfold on CBS. The playoff added drama to the situation plus pushed the broadcast more into a prime time slot on that Sunday evening, but that doesn't account for the major difference between last year's final-round ratings and this year's.
According to Sports Business Journal's Josh Carpenter, last Sunday's final round in Memphis only drew 2.211 million viewers to NBC to catch Hideki Matsuyama birdie his final two holes to claim a two-shot victory over Xander Schauffele and Viktor Hovland. That's more than a 30% drop between last year's final-round ratings and this year's, and this year's tournament ended up having a Top Four leaderboard consisting of four players ranked inside the top eight in the world.
The 2022 edition of the FedEx St. Jude also featured a playoff finish with Will Zalatoris eventually getting the best of Sepp Straka with 2.967 million tuning into the broadcast. Playoffs certainly play a major factor in all of this - sports fans love drama - but to say they draw in approximately 1 million more viewers than non-playoff finishes seems a bit disingenuous, especially when we're talking non-major championships. Pinning everything on playoffs seems too good to be true if you're the PGA Tour looking at these vastly different ratings over the years as well.
The Big Picture: Is Golf Losing its Grip on Viewers?
Simple burnout is why so few people tuned into this year's FedEx St. Jude Championship. The PGA Tour's schedule has been stale and over-saturated for quite some time. Golf fans are fed the same tournaments on the same golf courses with a change in date here and there, and by mid-August, many are simply checked out. The 2024 PGA Tour schedule was ‘unique' with the Paris Olympics falling two weeks before the start of the playoffs, and while the golf in Paris was some of the most-exciting we'd seen all year, it put a pause on the Tour's season, that pause was resumed with a weak-fielded Wyndham Championship, and asking fans to buy into the start of the playoffs is a big ask in today's still very much divided golf world. The fact that Scottie Scheffler entered the week with a lead of approximately 7 billion points in the FedEx Cup standings didn't necessarily help build drama and draw eyeballs to the golf in Memphis either.
The LIV Golf Factor: A Different Kind of Golfing Landscape
On Sunday, five-time major winner Brooks Koepka and two-time major winner Jon Rahm faced-off in a sudden-death showdown with $4 million on the line. In some alternate reality where Koepka and Rahm were still duking it on the PGA Tour, this would have been must-see TV. Instead, it was the pro golf equivalent of a tree falling in the Amazon. Despite the initial fervor surrounding the disruptor league and the seemingly unlimited financial reserves of the Saudi Private Investment Fund, LIV Golf—where Koepka and Rahm ply their trade in this universe—has failed to catch on with golf fans. Nowhere has this been made more explicit than in Sunday’s TV ratings, which saw a high-stakes duel between two of the league’s biggest stars beaten handily by midday pickleball.
LIV Greenbrier vs. Pro Pickleball
LIV Golf Greenbrier on CW:
Saturday (1-6P): 136KSunday (1-6:11P): 165K
Pro Pickleball Association Bristol Open Sunday at 1P on Fox: 295K
— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) August 20, 2024
It’s important to note that these figures include only the television broadcast and do not account for streaming (same goes for the PPA). It’s also worth pointing out that the final round of the PGA Tour’s FedEx St. Jude Championship—despite big names like Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Viktor Hovland in the mix—was down from 3.2 million viewers in 2023 to 2.2 million in 2024. Still, alarm bells should be sounding for LIV Golf, which has gained little traction with fans across three full seasons of play.
In December, when Rahm—one half of Sunday’s playoff—made his previously unthinkable switch to LIV Golf, momentum for the league seemed to be building. A PGA Tour-PIF deal felt like a matter of when not if with big names like Koepka, Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau now in LIV’s quiver. But star power, even as DeChambeau enjoyed a scorching-hot summer in majors and on YouTube, has not translated to scale, eroding LIV’s bargaining power with each passing tournament. We’ll see if that changes heading into year four, but if the LIV fails to improve its footing with fans, perhaps Sheikh Mansour will be eyeing up pickleball instead.
The Future of Golf: A Divided Game
The PGA Tour, once the undisputed king of professional golf, is facing a crossroads. The emergence of LIV Golf has fractured the golfing landscape, and the declining viewership figures highlight the challenges ahead. Whether the PGA Tour can regain its momentum remains to be seen. However, the sport’s future hinges on finding a solution that appeals to both traditional fans and a new generation of viewers. The challenge for the PGA Tour is finding a balance between maintaining its heritage and embracing the evolving demands of the modern sports landscape. Only time will tell if the PGA Tour can navigate these turbulent waters and secure its place as the dominant force in golf for years to come.
