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Big drama equals historic ratings.
Rory McIlroy’s white-knuckle triumph Sunday at The Masters, completing a career grand slam, averaged 12.71 million viewers for the final round, representing a 33% lift from last year’s concluding draw of 9.59 million, and is the most-watched golf telecast on any network in seven years. Coverage peaked at an average of 19.54 million, a figure higher than the National Football League’s regular-season average last year.
The final viewership also represented a significant turnaround after a more meager showing on ESPN to start the tournament, golf’s first major of the year. Thursday’s opening round dropped by 28% compared to last year to an average of 2.3 million viewers, showing the outsized impact of the absence of Tiger Woods from the field. Friday’s second round then largely continued the trend, falling by 14% from the same round last year to 3.1 million.
Momentum then began to build on Saturday with a third-round audience that averaged 7.6 million, up 16% from a year ago, helping set the stage for a Sunday final pairing of McIlroy, a fierce PGA Tour loyalist, and LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau.
McIlroy’s win in a sudden-death playoff over Justin Rose to claim his first Green Jacket also was a very different scenario from what was emerging just two hours before that. As McIlroy made the turn into the back nine Sunday, he opened up a four-shot lead, and the victory was poised to be a runaway. Instead, as the leaderboard quickly tightened, viewers were treated to some of the sport’s most dramatic competition in years.
