PGA Tour humiliate LIV Golf as latest TV ratings | Golf News

LIV Golf executives have been served a harsh actuality examine as the viewership numbers for their Mexico occasion had been considerably overshadowed by a rerun of final 12 months’s Zurich Classic on the PGA Tour.

The lack of viewers engagement with the PIF-backed league, now in its fourth season, has been obviously obvious. Since its contentious inception in 2022, the Saudi Arabian entity has managed to lure large names like Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and Sergio Garcia to compete, with these gamers signing profitable contracts to take part.

However, it appears that even the inclusion of family names such as Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson hasn’t resulted in a surge of fan curiosity. In truth, the Mexican leg of the LIV circuit only drew an average viewership of a mere 110,000 people on FS1.

On Friday, an estimated 30,000 viewers watched the stay occasion from Mexico City on FS2, adopted by 84,000 tuning in on Saturday on FS1. After this, the overall viewership crossed the six-figure mark as DeChambeau and Joaquin Niemann battled for the title, with the latter rising victorious.

Adding insult to damage for the backers in the Gulf State, a replay of the 2024 Zurich Classic – a PGA Tour occasion – pulled in 1.63 million viewers on CBS. This occurred while stay protection from the Swiss metropolis was interrupted from 3 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. ET due to a energy outage across Europe.

Formerly, Brandel Chamblee expressed his view that LIV is on a gradual decline in contrast to the PGA Tour due in half to its ongoing main championship negotiation stalemate. Golf Channel analyst Chamblee didn’t mince phrases: “LIV players have seller’s remorse.

“They need the meritocratic cachet that competing at the best stage confers but they’ve proven in their alternative to play for LIV that they’d moderately have the money first and sue for the cachet. Trying to blur the excellence between reward and reward.”

Chamblee also insisted that fans can discern the difference, preferring to support those who play for “historical past and legacy,” adding, “The viewers sees proper through them, and chooses to watch those that choose to play for historical past and legacy.”

However, Scott O’Neil, the latest CEO at the helm of LIV, refuted claims that the Saudi Arabian series has been an extravagant flop thus far. Speaking at CNBC Converge Live, he stated: “The golf is who we’re, but it is actually about the competition around golf that makes us completely different.

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“You can bring your family, you can bring a date, you can bring friends. We are different, though. We’re a global sports league. Our first 4 events we were in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, then we went over to Adelaide, Australia, then Hong Kong and now we’re in Singapore.”

For those of you who’ve spent time in New York, you would possibly know that some of our occasions are performed at 3 in the morning, so it may not register on conventional score scales as you would possibly register a US sports activities league.”

“And we’re quite OK with that, especially now that we’re starting to get more and more distribution around the world. We’re getting quite a few viewers in the timezones we are in. Over time, this notion of being the F1 of golf is one I like a lot. Other than LIV, F1 is the only truly global sports league.

“You’re definitely playing in a premium market like F1 has. Our hospitality experience is clearly like the paddock or a level better in terms of opportunity. Walking the pit row is very akin to walking our driving range before an event. It’s as close a parallel as you can find.”