PGA Championship Ratings Up 69% From Last Year
This year’s 6.1/14 is the highest rating for the Sunday final round of the PGA Championship since 2009.
The final-round rating peaked with an 8.3/17 rating/share from 7:00-7:15 PM, ET.
Top Five Rated Markets:
1. St. Louis – 11.5/24
2. Fort Myers – 11.2/22
3. Kansas City – 10.4/22
4. Tampa/St. Petersburg – 9.8/21
T5. Dayton – 9.5/19
West Palm Beach – 9.5/18
Nice. Tiger bringing that 69% pop. Nice.
This obviously comes as no surprise. Everybody was talking about the PGA yesterday. Folks who have never watched golf in their lives strolled into the office this morning, faces beaming, and couldn’t wait to tell me about how awesome it was watching the PGA yesterday. That is Tiger Woods. That is the power he wields. That is why he is 100% back. Professional golf is way more about losing golf tournaments than it is winning golf tournaments. Jack Nicklaus only won just over 11% of the majors he played. He finished runner up an amazing 19 times. Tiger contending, making 8 birdies, and posting a 64 in contention in the final round of a major championship is why he is back. The universal interest is why he is back. He held the solo lead on the back nine at the British Open and finished solo second this weekend at the PGA. In the words of Dave Portnoy himself, it has now evolved into: “if and when he wins.”
AKA, he’s obviously going to win. He’s been healthy enough to hone his game for less than a year now, yet he’s already threatening on the back nine on Sunday at golf’s biggest events. Historically it’s taken him 1-2 years to start winning major championships when he ingrains a new swing. This is his fifth different swing, and it’s clearly not there yet. It’s close, his iron play is unmatched, but not totally there yet.
Once it is, the wins will come in droves. It’s just a matter of time.
Regardless, we’ve been begging for Sundays to be returned to their prior greatness and they have been. Ratings and crowds through the roof. It wasn’t Augusta National or Pebble Beach or the Old Course at St. Andrews — it was relatively unrenowned Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri, and it delivered the most exciting golf tournament of the past decade.
