Lack of Star Power or Endless Greed? Golf’s Dangerous TV Ratings Decline Broken Down

The Masters final round drew only 9.58 million viewers to TV. It’s the worst rating since 1993, barring two COVID-induced years. Why is that significant? Masters is the rating magnet. It has always been so. Depending on Masters numbers, there is some idea of how better (or, in this case, worse) other tournaments are going to perform.

Now there was an early hint. PGA Tour events have witnessed a staggering decline in TV numbers. Whether more and more people are switching over to streaming isn’t clear from the numbers. But even factoring in that with rough estimates, the 15%, 25%, and, in the case of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, is a staggering 30% drop.

Now, as the noise on the internet suggests, the current world no. 1 is not enough of a crowd-puller. Sure, he isn’t Tiger Woods, even though his towering iron shots are reminiscent of early 2000s Woods. But the catch is that the that the PGA Tour’s viewership numbers have nosedived even when Scottie Scheffler was not in contention, which has been rare but has happened before the 27-year-old switched to a mallet putter. So, what has been the case?

Fans feel only money dominates the conversation

The root of the ‘Scheffler problem’, if there is ever one, is that the fans’ expectations seem to have changed. A section of golfers believes that somehow they deserve the same paycheck as Patrick Mahomes, Giannis Antetokounmpo, or Shohei Ohtani, even though golf’s popularity isn’t close to that of the that of the NFL, NBA, or MLB.

That’s also why a large section of fans are also ticked off by the conversation around purse size, paychecks, and eye-popping contracts. Only a few days ago, it was rumored that Rory McIlroy was close to joining LIV Golf for $850 million. For comparison, the tour had a total purse of around $460 million last year. 

Then Tour’s long-time sponsors have left, and reports indicate a few might leave soon. For a pretty simple reason: the ROI is not increasing at par with Jay Monahan’s growing demands. On top of that, the Tour has a new policy to drain more money from the tournament hosts, which will impact the charities, the bedrock of golf. 

“I think we hit this year-and-a-half- or two-year rut as both golfers and golf leagues that was just about making the players happy, and unfortunately and quite obviously the fans were not benefitted by that,” Max Homa said yesterday.

It’s not that fans are sitting with their spreadsheets open. But the eye-watering tournament purses and paychecks are coming at a heavy cost that isn’t lost on anyone. And to make matters worse, the biggest draws have been the most underwhelming this season.

Bigwigs have failed to live up to their aura

There are two things to note here. Firstly, LIV Golf has taken a chunk of the top PGA Tour pros. Golfers who also happened to be notorious off the court and who were also polarizing. A pot-stirrer like Brooks Koepka. A dubious hero like Phil Mickelson. An iconoclast like Bryson DeChambeau. The Tour certainly missed that part. Just check out how Alejandro Tosti’s little tiff with Tony Finau has left fans drooling for more.

On top of that, with a handful of established and rising stars such as Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Joaquin Niemann, and Matthew Wolff gone, the onus was on the remaining janissaries to step up their game. That hasn’t happened. 

Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, and Rickie Fowler. The Tour’s top draws and endearing stars have a combined seven top-10s this year. Tiger Woods played his first full round at the Masters. While Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark, Sahith Theegala, and Akshay Bhatia are fascinating prospects, without popular names on top of the leaderboard, casual viewers are too hard to come by. While Scheffler is in blistering form, not everyone is sold on the reigning Masters champion.

Does the PGA Tour have the wrong guy as its face?

The argument against the big, burly man of 6 feet 2 is that he is not Tiger Woods. His towering irons might remind some of Woods of 2005–06. But his low-key persona is as far from Woods as John Cazale was from Al Pacino. 

Low-key in nature, Scheffler doesn’t own a yacht named ‘Privacy’. Neither is the owner of a sprawling home in Jupiter’s upscale neighborhood. Even golf doesn’t define his identity. He is not a mad artist in search of perfection. Rather, he is just a fiercely competitive professional golfer who tries to be the best version of himself. Nothing more. Nothing less. 

But the expectations have certainly reached sky-high. Excelling at the job somehow doesn’t crack it. Scheffler has kept himself at bay from the PGA Tour-LIV Golf divide for the better part of these three years. Only occasionally has he commented, and his most fierce comment came only a month ago, when he clearly said players who left had created the splinter. No follow-up. There is no further explanation. Should we be worried, though? 

Twenty years ago, a kid of 16 burst into European soccer. Quiet, unassuming, brisk, and standing only at 5 feet 5, Lionel Messi was everything that a typical soccer icon wasn’t. The Argentine didn’t carry the swagger of Cristiano Ronaldo or the blasting mouth of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. And Messi was as far removed from his compatriot, Diego Maradona’s charisma as he could be.

But that never came in his way of stardom. Or, for that matter, there was no question of Messi’s ability to draw eyeballs. The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner weaved magic with his foot, which those who have watched the soccer icon before his Inter Miami days will fondly recall. La Pulga recently drew 72,610 fans to the Arrowhead stadium, including Patrick Mahomes, the third-highest attendance in MLS history.

So, perhaps we should stop worrying about the former Texas Longhorn star as well. The 27-year-old said, “As far as the average fan goes, I’m not really sure. I think they’re probably getting a little bit tired of all the noise.” Scottie Scheffler is doing just fine. It’s time to fix other things that went terribly wrong over the last few years.