Peter Malnati’s Tearing Win Tainted as PGA Tour Suffers Another Nightmare

“You can’t describe it, it’s so cool… it’s just amazing.” – said an emotional Peter Malnati as soon as he won the 2024 Valspar Championship. The victory was truly heartwarming, owing to the golfer’s reaction and the fact that it came after a whopping nine years. However, another setback for the Jay Monahan-led circuit at the Copperhead Course eclipsed the 36-year-old’s career milestone.

A tweet was shared by Josh Carpenter, a golf writer, reporting how the PGA Tour was hit with a low number of viewers. Moreover, it appears Malnati making a comeback after nine whole years wasn’t enough for the community to turn their attention back to the Tour, all the while falling short of last year’s numbers!

Peter Malnati’s Valspar Championship win and viewership woes

The final stop on the PGA Tour’s Florida Swing saw Peter Malnati win the tournament with a score of 12-under 272, all the while carding a total of 20 birdies, five of which came on Sunday. Even so, the amazing gameplay wasn’t enough to bring in people and failed to meet the standard of the 2023 event when Taylor Moore hit just 16 birdies, five of which came on the fourth day.

The numbers shared by the journalist reported how the final round on Sunday managed to rake in an average of 1.886 million viewers. Unfortunately, the numbers indicate a 27% dip as opposed to the 2023 edition of the event, which averaged 2.594 million when Moore won the same.

That’s not all. Back in 2022, Sam Burns emerged victorious at the Valspar Championship by birdieing a playoff hole on the 16th after tying for the T1 position with Davis Riley. Interestingly, the exciting display of golf had also been more successful at bringing in people, as the final round of the tournament averaged 2.454 million viewers. It seems Peter Malnati wasn’t alone in experiencing the setback.

Meanwhile, this has been a usual pattern on the men’s circuit. What’s more, it even saw a similar situation taking place during the recently held fourth signature event of the PGA Tour, the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational tastes a similar defeat

The tournament at Bay Hill Golf Course witnessed Scottie Scheffler emerge victorious at the same. However, even the No. 1 displaying his scintillating golf wasn’t enough for the PGA Tour to surpass its numbers in 2023. Surprisingly, the final round only saw a total of 2.29 million viewers, as opposed to 2023, which saw 30% more people tuning in.

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What’s more, the 2024 Mexico Open, which witnessed Jake Knapp claim his win, was watched by a total of 1.8 million viewers. Meanwhile, the 2023 edition saw 2.28 million people watch Jon Rahm lift the trophy. Anyhow, the numbers do indicate a worrying trend for the PGA Tour and the new for-profit entity led by Tiger Woods, along with Peter Malnati, and others as board members. They surely do need to up their game in all senses if the circuit is to make a comeback.

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