Two days after announcing sweeping tariffs that have tanked the U.S. stock market and put the entire global economy at risk, President Donald Trump is off doing what he does best: Hanging out at a golf course.
Trump is currently in Miami, where there is speculation he’ll attend this weekend’s LIV Golf tournament at Trump National Doral. Trump has already attended the welcome dinner on Thursday night. While a sizable portion of those in attendance are likely be happy to see him, the massive amount of media attention on him at the moment is likely to bring with it the gaze of many detractors and those upset that he’ll be partying at Mar-a-Lago instead of attending the dignified transfer of four American soldiers who died in Lithuania.
If there’s any primary beneficiary for all of this, it’s the Saudi-backed LIV Golf. The breakaway tour is still looking for its first notable American TV audience in its fourth year of competition. In a strange twist, Trump’s recent actions and attendance this weekend might be precisely what LIV needs. Not just to garner a significant number of eyeballs, but to potentially even top a PGA Tour event for the first time.
The timing couldn’t be better as this will be the first LIV event broadcast on Fox as part of their new multi-year deal. While the league’s ratings on The CW have been, at best, tepid and, at worst, downright embarrassing, they are guaranteed to have the best ratings of any tournament in their existence come Sunday.
LIV and Fox have made some shrewd scheduling decisions regarding which tournaments will be featured on Fox instead of FS1 or FS2, but this weekend might be the smartest.
We’re a week out from the Masters, which means many of the PGA Tour’s biggest names are taking the week off to prepare for Augusta. That also means that this weekend’s Valero Texas Open lacks the star power that usually comes with their events. While golfers like Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, and Hideki Matsuyama will be playing, the lack of big names and a broadcasting split between Golf Channel and NBC/Peacock likely means middling ratings.
So, how likely is it that LIV, whose viewership was recently outdrawn 1oo-to-1 by the PGA, could win the day?
Short of an impressive Jordan Spieth performance that comes down to the final hole, the Valero Texas Open will probably average between 1.7 and 2 million viewers on Sunday (it garnered 1.9 million last year).
Barring any delays, LIV will likely wrap up on Sunday around 4 p.m. EST, an hour or so before the PGA Tour finishes. Per Golf.com, that TV window regularly draws between 1.7 and 3.1 million average viewers for golf on CBS and NBC. As for Fox, they routinely draw around 4 million for NASCAR telecasts in that window.
So it stands to reason there’s a decent chance LIV will get within striking distance and get to sound the PR horns, even if several caveats are involved.
Here’s the rub for LIV. While beating the PGA Tour, at least for one weekend, is possible, the more critical accomplishment needed is that it breaks the one-million average viewer mark. Anything short of that might send the message that, for all its pomp, circumstance, and money, there simply isn’t a big enough appetite for LIV Golf amongst U.S. audiences.
Saying that this is a make-or-break weekend for LIV might be a bit much, but at a time when the PGA Tour is happy to balk at Saudi Arabia’s terms for reunification between the two leagues, failing to prove themselves a worthy competitor this weekend might tip the scales permanently.
