Declining television ratings became a focal point throughout the 2024 PGA Tour season, but that is not the case in 2025.
PGA Tour sees substantial viewership gains on NBC Sports ahead of Valero Texas Open
Executives at both the PGA Tour and NBC Sports must be pleased with recent ratings.
Photo by Brian Spurlock/Getty Images
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
After CBS produced a strong West Coast swing, capped by Ludvig Åberg’s win at the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines, NBC saw much of the same. Since the Mexico Open at Vidanta World, NBC and Golf Channel delivered six consecutive weeks of viewership gains compared to last year.
Five of the six final rounds had a peak audience of over three million viewers, with The Players Championship having a peak audience of 6.2 million. That’s impressive considering the final round of The Players experienced a four-hour weather delay. But when play resumed, Rory McIlroy quickly seized the lead and likely helped lure in eyeballs. McIlroy, of course, defeated J.J. Spaun in a three-hole playoff the following day, which aired on the Golf Channel. Viewership of that aggregate reached 1.5 million, making it the second-highest weekday total on Golf Channel over the past 20 years, trailing only Day One of the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.
This past week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open, which saw McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler contend until the end, peaked with 4.3 million viewers, the second highest total of this six-week stretch. Min Woo Lee bested Scheffler and Gary Woodland by a stroke to claim his first PGA Tour title.
Overall, the last six final rounds on NBC and Peacock have averaged 2.7 million viewers, up 13% over this same set of events in 2024. When including overall weekend coverage, NBC and Peacock averaged 2.2 million viewers, a 10% increase compared to 2024.
NBC will air this week’s Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, a field that features 27 players who will compete in next week’s Masters Tournament at Augusta National. Ludvig Åberg headlines the field, but the intriguing storylines surround players like Woodland, Ben Griffin, and Bud Cauley — all of whom are playing well, yet do not have a spot in next week’s field. A win at TPC San Antonio would quickly change that, just as Akshay Bhatia did last year.
As they have for the last 69 years, CBS will once again air weekend coverage of The Masters next week. Their 70th consecutive Masters broadcast will include extended hours, with Paramount streaming coverage from Noon to 2 p.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday. CBS will then begin its broadcast at 2 p.m. ET and conclude at 7 p.m. ET.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
