Posted on 02/28/2023 12:04:27 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Not only was LIV Golf’s first-ever TV broadcast a ratings disaster, it was blown out of the water by the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic — which featured arguably its worst field of golfers of the year.
According to viewership numbers obtained by Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter, LIV Golf Mayakoba — the controversial, Saudi-backed golf tour’s first event of the season — attracted 286,000 viewers on Saturday and 291,000 on Sunday during its maiden broadcasts on The CW. The PGA Tour, in broadcasts on NBC and the Golf Channel, outdrew LIV on each day — even the Thursday afternoon broadcast of the first round.
On Saturday and Sunday on NBC, the Honda Classic attracted 1.61 million and 2.38 million viewers, respectively. The Golf Channel broadcasts drew between 342,000 (Thursday) and 631,000 (Sunday) viewers.
All of this came on a weekend where the PGA Tour had one of its lowest-pedigree tournaments of the year. Ironically, the Honda Classic was one of the biggest victims of the new PGA Tour rules enacted in response to LIV. To combat the breakaway circuit’s huge payouts and guaranteed money, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan increased purse sizes for the Tour’s “elevated events” and designated four more events on the calendar as such.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
When an over-the-hill Charles Howell III is your celebrated winner and takes home 3x more in one event than he made in an average year on the PGA Tour during his prime it’s basically an exhibition event underwritten by a well-funded backer. LIV is basically the depository of washed-up famous golfers (with a couple exceptions) looking for an enormous retirement nest-egg.
Anything Saudi backed is poison
Golf is only sport I watch. Only LIV player I’ll miss is Bryson DeChambeau, who started his PGA career brilliantly and then slid down the leaderboard. Too bad, so sad:).
I think the Saudi thing is a big deal to viewers.
Not sure about that. Some of the biggest names made the move. Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koeopka, up and comer Cam Smith. Not a retirement crew.
That said I haven’t watched a minute yet. These are guys I want to see but not enough to follow a separate league.
Not this week but next, the Players Championship is scheduled, then in early April, THE MASTERS the biggest tournament of the year in TV ratings, the LIV tour will be in the dark over the next couple of months as least.
DJ had career earnings of something like $25m, and LIV offered him $125m. How do you say no?
If I were the PGA I wouldn't be bragging.
The LIV players will be in the Masters, those who qualified. If one of them wins it's a coup.
Which LIV golfers are on the 2023 invite list?
Abraham Ancer
Bryson DeChambeau
Sergio Garcia
Talor Gooch
Dustin Johnson
Brooks Koepka
Jason Kokrak
Phil Mickelson
Kevin Na
Joaquin Niemann
Louis Oosthuizen
Patrick Reed
Charl Schwartzel
Cameron Smith
Harold Varner III
Bubba Watson
Low-information voter golf?
That’s almost a Who’s Who of golf.
I did watch it for a few minutes. The announcing was contrived. In order to understand what was going on you needed to know what the teams were and who was on the teams. It was boring The PGA is easy to understand.
Cam Smith is one of the top favorites. I’d like to see him play well.
I'll take Feherty over Trevor Immelman or Dan Hicks
“DJ had career earnings of something like $25m, and LIV offered him $125m. How do you say no?”
I didn’t criticize DJ or any other LIV players for their decision to jump to LIV. I likely would have done the same. My comment is solely about the nature of LIV — it’s more or less comprised of players past their prime (including DJ and Koepka). Koepka in the Full Swing Netflix documentary basically admits he can no longer compete on the PGA Tour. Further, this offseason for LIV was not a successful one — they landed marginally solid players who won’t “move the needle”. The best players, by and large, are staying on the PGA Tour.
“during its maiden broadcasts on The CW”
I don’t think many people have the CW and I suspect that many who do don’t realize it.
You don’t.
I watched a bit of it. The players wear shorts, they have team golf and their TV scoreboard was interesting
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