Another week in golf, another similar story in television ratings.
The FedEx St. Jude Championship on NBC, the first of three FedExCup playoff events, drew a large audience, adding to the PGA Tour’s surge this season, while LIV again floundered on Fox, this time for its Chicago event.
According to the Sports Business Journal, Justin Rose’s playoff victory against J.J. Spaun at TPC Southwind averaged 3.6 million viewers in the final round, not including streaming numbers. That’s up from 2.1 million for Hideki Matsuyama’s win last year and an increase from 3.2 million in 2023 (Lucas Glover over Patrick Cantlay in a playoff) and 3 million in 2022 (Will Zalatoris in a playoff over Sepp Straka).
LIV Chicago, meanwhile, happening simultaneously on Fox (though ending a few hours earlier than the FedEx St. Jude), pulled in 334,000 for Dean Burmester’s playoff win over Jon Rahm and Josele Ballester, according to YeahClickClack on X. The extra holes to decide a champion extended coverage roughly 45 minutes, delaying the green flag for an IndyCar race in Portland.
LIV Chicago’s first round averaged 332,000 on Fox and Round 2 had 269,000 people watch before moving to FS2 at 3 p.m. ET.
The highest U.S. TV rating for LIV was 484,000 in the final round of LIV Miami at Doral on Fox, the week before the Masters. However, the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open on NBC that same day had 2.1 million.
Sunday’s final match at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, which Stanford’s Megha Ganne won, averaged an audience of 162,000 from 7–10 p.m. ET on Golf Channel.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as PGA Tour Ratings Continue to Surge While LIV Golf’s TV Audience Lags.