Golf’s fracture takes its toll: the worst Masters TV ratings with Tiger

Scottie Scheffler’s victory was followed by 20 percent less in the U.S. than Jon Rahm’s win

Scottie Scheffler lifts the trophy after winning the Masters

The split in golf since the emergence of LIV Golf has had only one victim: the sport itself.

It was evident on the first occasion when all the players were united in the same tournament, none other than the Masters, whose audiences have hit rock bottom over the course of the Tiger Era.

It is true that, as happens all over the planet, the use of other devices has resulted in a drop in numbers for conventional TV, but in the immediate comparison, from one year to another, the tournament has undergone a radical change in numbers.

Only 9.59 million viewers followed Scottie Scheffler’s victory on Sunday, 20 percent less than those who sat in front of the TV a year ago to witness Jon Rahm’s green jacket. Last year’s event was helped by the fact it was Easter Sunday, one of the most watched TV days in when it comes to U.S. households.

It was the least followed Masters of the Tiger Woods era with the megastar present, as in the 2021 edition, in which he was absent due to the traffic accident in Los Angeles, Hideki Matsuyama’s victory was slightly below the 2024 figure (9.45 million).

These figures join those that the AP agency provided a week ago regarding the regular PGA Tour tournaments: drops of 35 percent at the Phoenix Open; 30 percent at the Arnold Palmer and 15 percent at the TPC.

And it’s not as if there’s been a leak of viewership to the LIV, which airs on a fringe platform, the CW channel, based on the aggregation of local channels.