Can Masters TV Ratings Rebound From Big Drop Last Year?

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Golf TV ratings are relatively hot heading into The Masters Tournament, which could mean a boost in viewership for the first major of the year after a noticeable dip in 2024.

Final-round coverage of 9 of the last 10 PGA Tour events has seen year-over-year viewership increases. That includes broadcasts of elevated fields at the Players Championship and three of the Tour’s four $20 million signature events so far this season.

That upward trend should bode well for The Masters, which last year saw its final-round TV ratings decrease by 20% to 9.59 million viewers on CBS as Scottie Scheffler cruised to a second Green Jacket with a four-shot victory.

Scheffler is once again the heavy favorite (around +450 at many sportsbooks), but TV ratings magnet Rory McIlroy is not far behind (around +650). Both of McIlroy’s wins so far this season, at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Players Championship, have resulted in viewership spikes for CBS and NBC, respectively.

While CBS has Saturday and Sunday coverage, ESPN broadcasts the first and second rounds Thursday and Friday afternoon. In 2024, an average of 3.4 million viewers watched ESPN’s early-round coverage, the network’s largest two-day Masters average since 2018.

LIV Golf Bump?

This week, 12 LIV Golf players are being added to the mix, spicing things up for fans who don’t get to watch all of the world’s best golfers together regularly anymore.

“Anytime I get an opportunity to play against everyone, the best players in the world, it’s great,” LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau said Tuesday. “I think that’s what we’re all hoping for at some point is for that to be figured out.”

On Sunday, Fox averaged 484,000 viewers for the final round of LIV Miami, which represented the league’s most-watched telecast ever on linear TV. 

The key for strong TV ratings at The Masters will likely be a final-round leaderboard with big names, whether those are PGA Tour or LIV Golf players.