Jay Monahan’s Disturbing Problems Gets a Xander Schauffele Revival Despite NBA’s Knicks-Pacers’ Towering Steal

The PGA Tour is traversing on a bumpy road this year. There has been a significant decline in people tuning in to watch the game in the Jay Monahan-led circuit, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Masters, to name a few. However, one can’t deny how there was a notable increase in viewership when it came to events like the Valero Texas Open and the Wells Fargo Championship. The commissioner can now add another tournament to the list, courtesy of Xander Schauffele.

A report was shared on the X handle (formerly Twitter) by Josh Carpenter, a writer for Sports Business Journal, which mentioned how Schauffele’s win at the 2024 PGA Championship was able to go “head-to-head” with “the second-best game of the NBA Playoffs to date.”

Xander Schauffele’s win paints a positive picture for Jay Monahan

The 30-year-old clinched his maiden major victory at the Valhalla Golf Course by registering a 21-under 263. His performance also raked in 4.958 million people on CBS for the Jay Monahan-led Tour. This in turn indicates an increase of 10% from the 2023 edition, which saw Brooks Koepka’s ‘9-under 271’ victory draw in 4.517 million viewers.

The second major of 2024 also competed with Game 7 of the New York Knicks – Indiana Pacers scrap, which averaged 6.447 million people, becoming only the second-most watched series thus far. The PGA Championship did so while going “head-to-head” with the NBA game, which aired from 3:30 p.m. to 6:11 p.m. ET.

The final hour of coverage at the golfing event, averaged 7.764 million viewers, with the numbers peaking at 8.421 million when Xander Schauffele holed out from 6:45 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET. Although the circuit saw an increase this season, it still falls short when it comes to the numbers from 2019 to 2022. The event witnessed 5.273 million in 2022, 6.583 million in 2021, 5.150 million in 2020, and 5.008 million in 2019, when Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson, Collin Morikawa, and Koepka won it, respectively.

Such news comes off as encouraging after the recent numbers on the PGA Tour. Even though the sixth signature event saw an increase in viewership, the same wasn’t the case with the CJ Cup Byron Nelson or the RBC Heritage.

Recent viewership numbers for the Monahan-led Tour

When Scottie Scheffler claimed his fourth win of the season, CBS could only draw in 2.151 million people to watch the same during the final round of the RBC Heritage. Sadly, this indicated a major dip in viewership as opposed to the tournament’s previous edition in 2023, which saw 4.152 million viewers tuning in to witness Matt Fitzpatrick beat Jordan Spieth in the playoffs.

The CJ Cup Byron Nelson, meanwhile, drew in only 1.757 million viewers on Sunday, all the while experiencing a 24% decrease from the 2.326 million in 2023. However, much to everyone’s surprise, Rory McIlroy’s win at Quail Hollow raked in 2.778 million people to watch the contest, a whopping 34% increase when compared to the previous year. Well, It seems Jay Monahan and his circuit can only wait and watch to see if this rocky trend will continue or if they will be experiencing just a climb from here.