People want to watch greatness.
And the Procore Championship proved that to be true.
The final round of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Fall opener in Napa Valley, where world No. 1Scottie Scheffler defeated Ryder Cup teammate Ben Griffin by a stroke, drew an average of 441,000 viewers on Golf Channel, according to the Sports Business Journal.
That’s a nearly 400% increase from 2024, in which 104,000 tuned in for Patton Kizzire’s five-stroke victory over David Lipsky. In 2023, when Sahith Theegala notched his maiden Tour win, an average of 298,000 watched.
For context, the Mexico Open in February, one of the weakest strength of fields all season, averaged 2 million viewers on NBC in the final round. Also, the Valero Texas Open, a week before the Masters, pulled in 1.7 million. Both are some of the lowest-rated final rounds of 2025.
PGA Tour fall events don’t typically yield a large audience. Firstly, stars don’t usually play in them; however, this week was an exception, as 10 members of the U.S. Ryder Cup team were using the Procore as a tune-up for next week’s matches. Secondly, they are only broadcast on Golf Channel (not to mention, head-to-head with the NFL), unlike tournaments from January through August, for which the third and fourth rounds are on either CBS or NBC.
Aided by Scheffler, it appears some of golf’s momentum has carried into the fall after CBS had its most-watched season of the PGA Tour in seven years.
This raises a vexing decision for the Tour, though: what should the fall series be?
New PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp is striving for a “holistic relook” of the Tour, which could revamp the schedule after the Tour Championship. Currently, the seven tournaments in the autumn months are designed for players outside the top 50 in FedEx Cup points to secure their playing privileges for the next season and earn spots in the $20 million signature events.
Should the fall series be reserved for those players? It could be said that Scheffler and the Ryder Cup squad, all of whom have their Tour card locked up for years, are taking spots in the field away from the lower-tier names aiming to pave their way on the circuit.
“I kind of wish Scottie wasn’t here,” said Lanto Griffin after a T3 in Napa, which moved him from No. 142 to 100th in the FedEx Cup standings with the top 100 earning their card for 2026.
Rolapp, however, said that when he was the NFL’s chief media and business officer, he “didn’t cheer for teams, I cheered for television ratings.”
Therefore, reading the tea leaves after Scheffler’s ratings-boosting triumph, Rolapp might be looking for a way to have the Tour’s stars teeing it up after August and before January.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Scottie Scheffler's Procore Championship Win Yields Big Ratings Bump on Golf Channel.