What do the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf TV ratings tell us?

FLOWER MOON

The stars aligned for LIV in Mexico on a packed Sunday afternoon. For a few hours last weekend, the league had an FS1 window in golf’s typical weekend timeslot free of competition from the PGA Tour — and with a leaderboard featuring Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Joaquin Niemann.

A gnarly storm in the New Orleans area, home of the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic, was to thank for LIV’s open waters, along with a longer-than-expected blackout at the broadcast compound affecting both CBS and Golf Channel.

By the time the PGA Tour came back on air after a 2-hour delay around 5 p.m., many of LIV’s more vocal social media supporters were giddy. This was the moment they’d been waiting for — a real opportunity to showcase LIV’s competitive product…and maybe even steal some viewership from the PGA Tour.

So, how’d it look?

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THE RESULTS ARE IN…

LIV clocked in at 110,000 average viewers on FS1 for Niemann’s victory in Mexico. The PGA Tour delivered 1.63 million average viewers on CBS in roughly the same timeslot.

Of course, there’s a zillion different caveats available here, including that LIV’s broadcast aired on cable while the PGA Tour’s aired on a national over-the-air network, and that LIV aired the final round of a very compelling tournament for much of Sunday while the PGA Tour spent a good chunk of its telecast airing last year’s competition due to technical difficulties and weather delays.

LESSONS

In the end, the PGA Tour’s Sunday audience was approximately 15 times as large as LIV’s, even on a weekend of larger-than-expected wattage for LIV, and smaller-than-expected wattage for the PGA Tour (including in the literal sense).

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

Why does LIV bother pushing to be viewed as equals when the TV ratings say otherwise? Momentum.

Momentum is a powerful thing for LIV. It’s hard to create real-life excitement without creating the perception of excitement — which comes from announcing splashy partnerships and big-name TV partners. If you can generate enough excitement to wrangle real-life moneymakers like TV audiences and big-money sponsors, momentum can turn the tide of an entire business.

Of course, a profitable LIV is a long way off, but momentum can be helpful in the short term, too. It can help to convince LIV’s Saudi bosses that things are trending the proper direction, which — as anyone who’s ever worked at a startup can attest — may be equally important.

THE LINGERING QUESTION

Does LIV possess a rightful claim to momentum in 2025? At least as it relates to TV viewership, that’s a tough case to make.

LIV CEO Scott O’Neil has countered TV critics by suggesting that LIV is a global league with millions of worldwide viewers. I haven’t seen any reputable evidence supporting that claim. Also unclear is the relevance of global performance when it comes to the Tour comparison. LIV tells us it cares about the U.S. golf audience because it still pays for a top-flight U.S. TV production, plays half of its events in the United States, and has spent considerable effort negotiating its rights agreements with Fox.

I believe O’Neil when he says the LIV business is bigger than just the U.S. But if the U.S. TV audience wasn’t important (if not critical) to LIV’s long-term success, the league’s approach would look dramatically different. 

TWO SIDES OF THE COIN

Some of the perception around LIV’s TV viewership can be attributed to expectations.

If you believe LIV is supposed to be a one-to-one competitor to the PGA Tour, you’re disappointed by a max viewership of 500,000 average viewers on a national TV network — or roughly one-third of the Tour’s smallest audience, as LIV Miami delivered on Fox. But if you believe LIV is an additive product to the PGA Tour (as CAA’s Michael Klein, who is working with the league, suggested to SBJ last week), then these numbers are less dire. In this instance, LIV is more comparable to the TGL than the PGA Tour — and the numbers support it.

In either case, if you believe golfers are worth hundreds of millions in guaranteed salaries, as LIV does, you certainly believe they’re capable of drawing an audience competitive to other major sports. But that’s not where we are today.

WHERE DO WE GO?

The big question here remains unanswered: Where are things headed?

Right now, the answer seems clear: gridlock. The PGA Tour’s ratings have rebounded in a real way throughout the first part of ’25, and there’s plenty of internal enthusiasm around the young crop of talent and new way of life.

Do golf fans miss the stars who went to LIV? Absolutely. But it feels like what was a fluid situation has solidified. Fans and players are aligned on their respective sides of the fence.

A merger agreement could change that. A cash infusion from the Saudis could, too. Maybe World Golf Ranking status for LIV — which appears to be possible — could also help. Until one of those things makes a real dent, though, it seems we’re at an impasse.