The Players Championship is no doubt the marquee event on the PGA Tour, boasting a $25 million purse and informally referred to as “the fifth major.”
But heading into the action this week at the iconic TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Fla., the PGA Tour is already halfway through its “signature event” schedule, which this season includes eight tournaments with limited fields for the highest-ranked players and $20 million purses—more than double a typical prize fund.
Three of those signature events so far had a year-to-year boost in TV ratings for their final rounds. Here are the viewership numbers, according to Nielsen ratings:
- The Sentry: 461,000 on Golf Channel (-35%)
- AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: 3.33 million on CBS (+47%)
- Genesis Invitational: 3.4 million on CBS (+6%)
- Arnold Palmer Invitational: 2.8 million (+22%)
The biggest gain came at Pebble Beach, where Rory McIlroy won in February, but that increase was compared to the 2023 tournament because last year’s final round was canceled due to inclement weather (Wyndham Clark was declared the winner after three rounds).
Because of the Los Angeles wildfires, this year’s Genesis Invitational was moved from its traditional home, Riviera Country Club, to Torrey Pines, which had hosted its annual PGA Tour event just a few weeks earlier.
The final four signature events are:
- RBC Heritage: April 17–20 in Hilton Head
- Truist Championship: May 8–11 in Philadelphia
- The Memorial Tournament: May 29 to June 1 in Ohio
- Travelers Championship: June 19–22 in Connecticut
Those will test the stamina of golf viewers around the major championships, as the RBC Heritage will be played the week following the Masters, the Truist Championship the week before the PGA Championship, and the Travelers Championship the week following the U.S. Open.
Players Spotlight
The Players Championship field includes 48 of the top-50 ranked golfers in the world, 47 of which will be trying to stop Scottie Scheffler from winning the tournament for an unprecedented third straight year.
Last year’s final round, which saw Scheffler narrowly beat three players by one stroke, averaged 3.5 million viewers on NBC, which was down from the 4.1 million who tuned in to Scheffler’s more dominant victory in 2023, when he defeated second-place finisher Tyrrell Hatton by five shots.
