Shocking (!) viewing figures announced from latest PGA Tour event
Viewing figures drop over a quarter in one year for the final day of the Valspar Championship.
Peter Malnati's win at the Valspar Championship drew in measly viewing figures, dropping over 25% from 2023.
Malnati claimed his second PGA Tour title and his first in nine years when he pipped Cameron Young to the win.
Despite his late-round heroics, Malnati's play wasn't enough to draw in viewers, with only 1.886m people tuning in to NBC to watch the final round, according to Sports Business Journal's Josh Carpenter.
Granted, 1.886m is still a lot of people; however, it marks a considerable drop-off compared to previous years.
In comparison, 2.594m switched their TVs on to watch Talor Moore win the same tournament in 2023, albeit with a more star-studded leaderboard.
And go back even further to 2022, 2.454 million tuned in to watch Sam Burns win the same tournament.
NBC averaged 1.886M viewers for Peter Malnati's win in the Valspar Championship on Sunday.
That's down 27% from 2.594M last year for Taylor Moore's win (Jordan Spieth was also in the mix down the stretch).
Two years ago: 2.454M for Sam Burns. pic.twitter.com/8qbEvsS6HY
— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) March 26, 2024
This downward trend in viewing figures has been a real issue for the PGA Tour this year, with a number of tournaments also producing figures close to 25% down on 2023.
For example, NBC drew in 1.8m for the final round of the Mexico Open at Vidanta to watch Jake Knapp secure his maiden PGA Tour victory.
That figure was down 23% from Tony Finau's three-shot victory over Jon Rahm in 2023.
One-time PGA Tour winner Mark Lye ripped into the state of the leaderboard in the final round of the 2024 Mexico Open.
It's fair to say the leaderboard at Valspar wasn't much better, with the only real household name to feature in the top 20 being Xander Schauffele.
The Mexico Open and Valspar aren't the only two tournaments that have produced concerning figures this year, though.
The Farmers Insurance Open recorded a 27% year-on-year drop from 2023 to 2024, and the controversial WM Phoenix Open drew 2.4m viewers for the final round this year, compared to Scottie Scheffler's victory in 2023, which drew 3.67m viewers.
With a fresh 3b investment recently landing in the lap of the PGA Tour courtesy of the Strategic Sports Group, there will undoubtedly be pressure on the premier North American circuit to improve these figures.
What do you make of the PGA Tour in 2024? Has it lost its appeal with so many of its members now competing on LIV Golf? Share your thoughts and comments over on the GolfMagic social media channels.
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