The PGA Tour season draws to a close this weekend with the Tour Championship, and it appears the tour will notch a slight viewership increase over last season.
According to data published by Josh Carpenter in Sports Business Journal, the PGA Tour’s regular-season audiences averaged 2.5 million viewers across weekend telecasts on NBC and CBS during the 2026 season. That’s up two percent versus last year’s comparable figure, which includes Nielsen’s new Big Data methodology. Viewership was up 19 percent year-over-year without including Big Data, which technically did not get rolled into Nielsen’s top-line numbers until last September.
In an apples-to-apples sense, the PGA Tour saw a low single-digit increase versus last season.
Audiences on NBC and Peacock averaged 2.7 million viewers for the network’s slate of weekend telecasts this season. CBS averaged 2.5 million viewers across 17 events.
Golf Channel saw similar gains over 2025. Per Carpenter, Golf Channel’s PGA Tour coverage averaged 565,000 viewers, up six percent versus the 2025 Big Data numbers. The network’s Thursday and Friday afternoon coverage averaged 477,000 viewers (up 10 percent), while its weekend lead-in coverage averaged 738,000 viewers (up five percent).
The PGA Tour is preparing to face some significant changes in the coming years. For one, it will need to decide how, when, or if it will reintegrate certain LIV Golf participants back into the field as several defectors reportedly eye returns to the PGA Tour. Second, the Tour will implement its new promotion-relegation format in 2028: a Championship Series featuring the top golfers and a Challenger Series with players vying for elevated status. It also announced on Tuesday a new format for its postseason, which will feature a 32-player match-play competition. Along those lines, the PGA Tour will need to begin negotiating new television contracts to fit its new format in the next year or two, as current agreements with NBC and CBS expire in 2030.
Under new CEO Brian Rolapp, the PGA Tour has been laser-focused on improving its television product. If all goes to plan, stronger ratings will follow.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.