The PGA Tour is continuing to find success with its designated events. The proof is in the ratings and the ratings speak for themselves.
Let’s exclude the Masters here for a second. The final round at Augusta drew the highest golf audience in five years, as an average of 12.058 million viewers tuned in. That’s an outlier and one that any other tournament on the calendar just isn’t going to reach.
At the same time, CBS saw the 2023 RBC Heritage draw 4.152 million viewers for this past Sunday’s final round, according to Josh Carpenter of the Sports Business Journal. If you take out the Masters, that is the most-watched final round on the PGA Tour this season. Those numbers are up 13 percent from last year’s viewership of 3.676 million and that was with one of the world’s most popular golfers — Rory McIlroy — withdrawing from the event.
This is also the fourth most-watched sporting event of the weekend (trailing only three NBA playoff games).
Every full-field designated event on the schedule has seen a year-over-year increase to this point
— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) April 18, 2023
According to Carpenter, that puts the RBC Heritage as the fourth most-watched sporting event of the weekend. The tournament only trailed three NBA playoff games, meaning that there were several playoff games that it surpassed in ratings, as well as nationally televised Major League Baseball games over the weekend. Granted it’s still early on for MLB, but those are great numbers nonetheless for the PGA Tour, which has left LIV Golf and its brutal CW ratings in the dust.
The next designated event will take place at the beginning of next month when the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship tees off. It’ll be interesting to see those numbers, as the tour won’t have to compete with the NFL Draft in ratings, but will likely overlap with the NBA and NHL playoffs.
For now, the Harbour Town tournament continues the positive momentum the PGA Tour has seen all season with a wide majority of broadcast windows seeing year-over-year increases.
