The PGA Tour put forth a massively successful Players Championship last week, generating impressive TV ratings that bode well for the Tour’s future. In light of those ratings, TV analyst Brandel Chamblee took the opportunity to take LIV Golf to task.
He did so with not one, but two posts on X.
Chamblee mocks LIV ratings
On Tuesday, Josh Carpenter of the Sports Business Journal posted preliminary TV ratings for the Players Championship on X. In one post, he reported that the Monday playoff between Rory McIlroy and J.J. Spaun drew 1.5 million viewers across TV and digital platforms from 9-10 a.m. ET, which Carpenter called a “big, big number for that time of day on cable.”
Within an hour, Chamblee replied to Carpenter’s post with his own. But Chamblee’s focus wasn’t on the PGA Tour’s success. Instead, he taunted LIV by mentioning their own poor TV ratings.
“Compare this to LIV’s finale last year that concluded in prime time on the east coast with Rahm winning… which drew 55,000 viewers,” Chamblee wrote on X. “People tune in to sports that matter.”
For the record, Jon Rahm clinched the 2024 LIV Individual title at LIV Golf Chicago last September. And Chamblee’s numbers are off. The second round of the tournament drew 134,000 viewers, with the third and final round hitting only 89,000, still higher than Chamblee’s figure.
Last year, LIV Golf events were shown on the CW cable network. This season, the upstart league signed a new deal with Fox Sports. But the ratings on Fox’s family of channels have been disappointing too. The final round of this year’s season-opening LIV Golf Riyadh event drew 54,000 average viewers on FS1, which could be the figure Chamblee is noting.
Chamblee targets LIV players
But he wasn’t done yet. Just a few hours later, Chamblee replied to another X post from Carpenter. This Carpenter post reported that the Players Championship drew an average audience of 3.6 million on Sunday, up from 3.5 million last year, with a peak audience of 6.2 million, slightly more than the 6 million peak audience for Scheffler’s 2024 Players win.
Chamblee’s response to that post was longer and strongly-worded, claiming that “LIV is dying a slow costly death” before turning his ire on LIV players.
“The PGA Tour is killing it and LIV is dying a slow costly death,” Chamblee wrote. “LIV players have seller’s remorse. They want the meritocratic cachet that competing at the highest level confers but they have shown in their choice to play for LIV that they’d rather have the money first and sue for the cachet. Trying to blur the distinction between gift and reward.”
He continued, “The audience sees right through them, and chooses to watch those that prefer to play for history and legacy.”
Where does PGA Tour-LIV deal stand?
Earlier this year, there seemed to be hope that a reunification between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf was imminent. Many figures on the Tour side, including Jay Monahan and Tiger Woods, intimated that LIV players could appear in PGA Tour events before the end of this year.
But in the last few weeks, negotiations seemed to have stalled. At his Players Championship press conference last week, Monahan noted the “ebbs and flows” of the negotiations. He added the potential ominous note that while they’re still working to bring the two sides together, the PGA Tour “will not do so in a way that diminishes the strength of our platform or the very real momentum we have with our fans and our partners.”
