The PGA Tour cannot be happy today with the news it has received about the US Open. The tournament’s final round saw the lowest television audience in history for the event according to Sports Media Watch.
The previous low came in 2014 when the final round averaged a 3.0 rating and viewership north of 4.3 million. Those numbers are admirable compared to 2020. This year’s final round drew an average rating of 2.0 and 3.21 million viewers. Year-over-year, ratings for the final round were down 55%. Viewership was down 56%.
While all sports have struggled to regain their pre-pandemic footing in 2020, the US Open seemingly was heavily effected by the competition.
In his Sports Media Watch column, Paulsen noted the clear effect the NFL had on golf’s potential audience by looking at ratings for golf majors played earlier in the year.
“Notably, Sunday’s telecast averaged a lower rating and fewer viewers than the final rounds of NBC’s two previous tournaments — the Tour Championship on Labor Day (2.4, 4.01M) and BMW Championship last month (2.2, 3.44M). Those telecasts did not face football competition.”
Golf just can’t compete with football. That may be a reality the PGA has to face when putting 2020 in perspective. Not only did the final round of the US Open struggle against the NFL. Third round coverage also came up well short of expectations, as it faced competition from college football.
NBC certainly bears the brunt of this bad news, as it is the network that received the poor ratings, but it isn’t good news for CBS either. That network is set to carry The Masters in November.
That tournament will be played during what will be Week 10 for the NFL. It is the same week that college football offers some marquee matchups including Wisconsin at Michigan, Texas A&M at Tennessee, and Alabama at LSU.