Tiger Woods’ grand return to the greens has turned all heads to the Bahamas. The much-anticipated comeback is also expected to skyrocket TV ratings and draw millions of eyes to the screen as well. Notably, even before the tournament started, Golf Channel announced that they would telecast the pre-tournament press conference that the 15x Major winner hosts in Albany. As expected, the presser received a lot of attention from fans and former players alike.

Amid all these, it is easy to forget that the Hero World Challenge is an unofficial event on the PGA Tour calendar. The invite-only Tiger Woods-hosted event pits top players against each other that’s rarely seen outside the Majors. Naturally, the attention it receives is barely matched by any other event in the PGA Tour and exceeds any official LPGA Tour coverage. That once again, goes on to show the viewership struggles of the female circuit. LPGA, although, has noticed a significant hike in the number of global viewers, getting the proper limelight it deserves has been a tough nut to crack.

The X factor of Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods has rarely stepped on the greens in the last few years. Even when he did, he was quite removed from the Woods, who had won 14 majors in a span of 12 years. But that had little to no effect on his popularity. If this year’s PIP standings still leave you doubtful, consider the last few years’ viewership stats.

In 2017, Hero World Challenge received a 1.29 rating on NBC during the moving-round coverage. Compared to the season-ending Tour Championship figures, the third round of the Hero World Challenge surged ahead. Go back a year, and you’ll see Tiger Woods’ return to the greens drew near about 786,000 viewers on a Thursday night to the TV screen. That was a 190% increase over 2015, when the 15-time Major winner didn’t play.

Seven years later, the story hasn’t changed a bit. Woods’ return to the greens after seven months of hiatus drew considerable coverage from the media. In fact, his address to the media ahead of the long-anticipated comeback was one of the most widely telecasted press conferences in recent times, easily comparable to the hype around the Ryder Cup presser.

However, the media attention that the Hero World Challenge, an ‘unofficial’ event, is getting serves as a sobering reminder of the rather lackluster coverage reserved for the female circuit. The LPGA Tour has long struggled with improving viewership. Moreover, it has been an uphill journey for LPGA pros to get the same amount of respect and reverence that’s usually reserved for PGA Tour pros. The TV ratings for some tournaments only testify to that.

Viewership for the LPGA Tour is growing, but…

This year, the LPGA Tour recorded its highest-ever viewership across streaming platforms. Moreover, the moving day and the final round of the US Open received one million viewers over NBC. The popularity of games and LPGA stars is undeniably growing.

One look at the viewership status of the PGA Tour’s Shriners Children’s Open will prove that. The event garnered a lot of interest because of LPGA pro Lexi Thompson’s participation. Although ESPN doesn’t independently provide data, the PGA Tour said it noticed a 19% uptick in viewership.

The last round of this year’s US Open drew in 1.59 million views on NBC, courtesy of a primetime slot. But for the LPGA Tour, getting a primetime slot has been a tough task to do. Back in 2020, the US Women’s Open was going on simultaneously with the Greg Norman-hosted QBE Shootout. The latter, another unofficial event on the PGAT calendar, was given four-hour-long coverage on Golf Channel, while the US Women’s Open was pushed to the streaming service Peacock.

LPGA Tour pros suffer from a lack of proper coverage

The apparent over-importance given to an exhibition-like PGAT event that didn’t have OWGR points on cards didn’t sit well with most. Golf fans, analysts, and former players tore into NBC for the alleged discrimination.

LPGA Pro Marina Alex expressed her disappointment on X (formerly Twitter) at that time. “Thoroughly disappointed with coverage slots provided by USGA, NBC Sports for the BIGGEST major of the year. All we discuss is “elevating” the game. Is that just rhetoric or are we actually going to be valued with solid TV coverage? How do we grow the game when we can’t be seen?”

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However, Golf Channel, in a statement, said the change of schedule was due in part to the LPGA Major’s change of tee time due to poor weather conditions. However, that was not the only time. Most recently, outrageous broadcast issues cropped up at this year’s Solheim Cup.

While the nail-biting action was going on between Nelly Korda and Carlota Ciganda, Golf Channel’s cameras totally missed the thrilling 16th hole, where the Spaniard’s one bad shot tilted the cup in favor of the USA side. A deeper look into the issue reveals that the media company responsible, UCOM, has barely any exposure in the golf industry other than covering golf for LET since 2011. Reportedly, the German company uses a meager 15 cameras to catch the action, compared to the around 100 cameras that NBC keeps in store for bigger events.

This shows that the LPGA Tour still suffers from poor media coverage, which also results in viewers getting frustrated with the Tour. Now, with the huge coverage the Tiger Woods-hosted event is getting from all sections, it again proves the deep wedge existing between the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour.

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