The start of the NFL season in September has led to a big drop in TV viewers for golf. Historically, golf has always taken a backseat when football is on, but this year seems especially concerning for those invested in golf’s success.
Throughout 2024’s PGA Tour season, including the four Major championships, an average of 2.8 million people watched on Sundays. Without counting The Masters and other majors, that number fell to 2.2 million, which is about a 20% decrease from last year, according to Josh Carpenter from Sports Business Journal.
Even though these numbers only reflect traditional TV watching and not streaming—which many young fans prefer —the trend is still worrying. Fans might think it’s because football is just more exciting to watch than golf.
TV Ratings and Golf Tournaments:
For example, the Procore Championship saw only 69,000 viewers on Golf Channel as Patton Kizzire won by five strokes—a huge drop from last year’s viewership when Sahith Theegala was victorious. Meanwhile, during the same weekend, Jon Rahm narrowly beat Joaquin Niemann in the LIV Golf League’s Individual Championship with just 89,000 tuning in on The CW.
It’s not just disinterest causing these low numbers; NFL games were happening at the same time as well as the thrilling Solheim Cup finale at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. In contrast to men’s golf struggles, women’s golf had a great moment with Team USA winning back their trophy against Europe while attracting an audience of 657,000—much higher than previous years.
After taking a break for the Presidents Cup, things didn’t improve much for PGA Tour events like Sanderson Farms Championship or Black Desert Championship either. Kevin Yu’s playoff victory over Beau Hossler drew only 136,000 viewers and Matt McCarty’s win attracted even fewer eyes.
Ultimately though many factors contribute here: perhaps people simply prefer watching football over golf during weekends? This isn’t new; it’s been happening every year without fail so far!
As debates continue about where professional men’s golf should head next—and how long it will take before solutions arrive—fans remain frustrated by delays affecting viewership between September-January periods each year now too often lately seen dwindling away quickly unless something changes soon enough somehow somewhere…
What do you think could help bring more attention back towards golfing events again?
