AustinCountyAg said:

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ratings are down because of smartphones/internet. You no longer have to watch to know whats going on. you pull it up on Instagram or whatever. You have to have patience and an actual interest in golf to watch. The majority of Americans, especially the younger audience do not have both of those qualities. Golf ratings on tv will continue to go down.

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Why doesn't that apply to football?

I play 4 times a week with a bunch of other retired guys. One guy tried to start some conversations about the Masters and the response was mostly F pro golf. When we got in to the bar after the rounds we didn't turn it on TV. Saturday met a Texags guy for lunch at We Ko Pa and we didn't watch.

Golf has a problem much bigger than access through smartphones in my opinion.

"They're all boring is what.

Exciting golf is a bunched up group on the last day for the lead with someone from behind going low that day and making a run. "

Tiger effect excluded.

Hell………he could run double digits ahead of the field in a Major on Sunday and the tournament would have record viewership.

Yeah because he was breaking course and tourney records and doing things no one had ever seen.

if Casey Martin got a medical exemption to play riding in a cart Tiger should too

jja79 said:

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AustinCountyAg said:

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ratings are down because of smartphones/internet. You no longer have to watch to know whats going on. you pull it up on Instagram or whatever. You have to have patience and an actual interest in golf to watch. The majority of Americans, especially the younger audience do not have both of those qualities. Golf ratings on tv will continue to go down.

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Why doesn't that apply to football?

I play 4 times a week with a bunch of other retired guys. One guy tried to start some conversations about the Masters and the response was mostly F pro golf. When we got in to the bar after the rounds we didn't turn it on TV. Saturday met a Texags guy for lunch at We Ko Pa and we didn't watch.

Golf has a problem much bigger than access through smartphones in my opinion.

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because golf is slow AF to watch on tv. It take a group 5+ hours to play a complete round. combine that with other players in contention it is dang near a full day to watch a full round of golf. Also tournaments last 3/4 days. It is why most people consider golf boring to watch and turn it on on weekend afternoons while they take a nap.

Football is 2 1/2 hours of cut and dry competition.

Ag_07 said:

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hunterjr81 said:

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I wish people playing golf was down 20%. Not easy finding tee times at my home course until really late.

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And expensive AF

If you want to play something besides a goat ranch full of beer drinkers in denim it's $100+.

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Makes me really appreciate the 2 local city courses 2-miles from my house which are $38 to walk 18 before noon on the weekends and just goes down from there after noon, after 4, weekdays, etc.

And they are for the most part well kept, watered and except for the last two weeks of sanding the greens as everything grows out this spring, are in great shape.

Already mentioned but this has more to do with how people consume sports in general these days than golf. Rating for all sports have been declining pretty steadily the last decade or so. Why sit around and watch the game for hours when you can check the score on your phone and tune in if it gets exciting. The only exceptions have been the NFL and periodic events like the World Cup.

I think the change in golf TV ratings is people who have been their base aren't watching nearly as much golf. They're doing it to themselves.

A lot of the arguments make sense for the overall decline in ratings over the years, but not for a 20% drop in one year.

"It's because of the Masters app" - that has existed for years

"It's because of LIV and all the discussion about money" - that existed last year (and seemed to be more heated last year)

"It's because people don't watch tv anymore" - yes, but we haven't seen 20% drop in general tv watching over the past year

"It was a boring back 9" - so was last year

"Scheffler doesn't have a personality" - very few of these guys have personalities

Ratings for golf this year have been terrible and I assumed it was due to the lack of star power remainng on the tour, so I expected them to jump back up for the Masters. Nope.

Seven Costanza said:

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"It's because of the Masters app" - that has existed for years

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The Masters app has evolved a lot year after year. It's much more robust than it was even just a couple of years ago. Now I can pick any player in the field and watch every shot of his round in just a few minutes. It hasn't always been that way and it's much easier to do that than watch a broadcast with all the dead air time and announcer drivel. I'd like to see them allow me to pick a group of players and watch all of their shots chronologically while also seeing how their position on the leaderboard changes with each shot/hole completed. I like tuning in real-time for the last 2-3 hours but the rest I'd rather watch on the app at my convenience.

So you're saying CBS or ESPN might be mad enough by now to buy it from them?

Seven Costanza said:

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A lot of the arguments make sense for the overall decline in ratings over the years, but not for a 20% drop in one year.

"It's because of the Masters app" - that has existed for years

"It's because of LIV and all the discussion about money" - that existed last year (and seemed to be more heated last year)

"It's because people don't watch tv anymore" - yes, but we haven't seen 20% drop in general tv watching over the past year

"It was a boring back 9" - so was last year

"Scheffler doesn't have a personality" - very few of these guys have personalities

Ratings for golf this year have been terrible and I assumed it was due to the lack of star power remainng on the tour, so I expected them to jump back up for the Masters. Nope.

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Last season the final round was on Easter Sunday. Holidays equals large ratings bump (why the NFL took over T-Day from college football and is taking Xmas day from the NBA). 2024 was only down about 500k viewers from 2022, which was also a Scheffler win. This year wasn't so much drastically down as last year was drastically up due to the Holiday.

Sooper Jeenyus said:

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So you're saying CBS or ESPN might be mad enough by now to buy it from them?

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The Masters owns the broadcast and ads. ESPN and CBS pay them nothing (nor do they collect ad revenue), and The Masters just reimburses them for production costs. That's why there are only 4 minutes of ads per hour

While I'm sure the fractured tours and money talk has some affect, it's nothing in the big picture. Go look at ratings for any major sport (or any big live event for that matter). They're all down since about 2010 or so, some of them drastically. The only exception is the NFL.

I wasn't watching the Oscars when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. But within minutes of it happening I saw a clip of it on social media. There's little reason to watch for the average fan when you can easily find highlights on social media 2 minutes after they happen.

That's the most likely explanation (last year being unusually high due to the holiday). Just looked it up and last year was the highest rated Masters in five years.

NColoradoAG said:

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Scheffeler is dominating and he has practically zero personality or fire. People want heroes and villains in golf as well. Maybe if one of the LIV guys had a better chance going into Sunday the ratings would have been a bit better.

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Had a discussion about this with a friend, today, and agree. Imagine a Phil and a Rory pairing in one of the final groups.

The Milkman said:

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NColoradoAG said:

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Scheffeler is dominating and he has practically zero personality or fire. People want heroes and villains in golf as well. Maybe if one of the LIV guys had a better chance going into Sunday the ratings would have been a bit better.

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People like to see dominance or a dynasty. It doesn't have to be a "personality".

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Actually I think you have to have both to bring the non-dedicated fan to watch golf on tv. People need someone to root for and there are just not many golf personalities that separate themselves today. I quit watching when Tiger shot 82. I just can't find a favorite golfer that makes me want to sit and watch multiple hours of golf.

Bomb and gouge sucks. And ANGC response was to lengthen their par 5s so they removed any reward. When Rory hit 3W, wedge, wedge on 13, I turned it off.

Meh, Sam made it way exciting last year...not so much this year. I even watched some reruns with fast forward instead of the real deal.

The LIV schism was around last year but we have over a full year now under the belt with it and the continued coverage, the Rahm flip, etc. is driving people away from caring to watch as much. I don't think the LIV thing affected ratings much last year because the field was still pretty much set outside of LIV completely. Now we have guys like Smith and Bryson on the leaderboard and average fans (or fans that don't care to follow LIV) have hardly seen these dudes golf in the past year. Makes the product less compelling.

The continued coverage of the LIV guys wanting to have their cake and eat it too is turning people off.

Outside of that, the other biggest factor was the leaderboard late Sunday and who was on top. Hate to say it because he seems like a genuine and nice guy, but Scottie is not that exciting to watch. And no one stepped up to the plate to make it interesting. I agree with other posters saying if someone like Rory was in the hunt late then ratings would have skyrocketed because people would tune in once they saw that score or info on their phone on social media.

Golf is a niche sport. The viewers are mostly hard-core fans. They've turned that group off. Seeing the LIV guys in their outfits, the constant talk about money turns people off and the TV coverage just isn't very good. CBS, in my opinion, is terrible at golf. They have a stale group of announcers. Just my two cents.

bowhuntr said:

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Aggie Therapist said:

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Ag_07 said:

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hunterjr81 said:

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I wish people playing golf was down 20%. Not easy finding tee times at my home course until really late.

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And expensive AF

If you want to play something besides a goat ranch full of beer drinkers in denim it's $100+.

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Just move to Southern Pines, North Carolina. I was stationed at Fort Bragg and lived in SoPines/Pinehurst area.

$20 got you a round of golf at a beautiful course.

I can't remember the exact statistics but it was an absurd amount of golf courses in a small amount of square miles.

Truly the cradle of golf.

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I think it is over 40 in a 10 mile radius. Lived there as well - incredible golf. Not much else!

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Living here now and LOVE it. Played Pine Needles during Masters week then went to Augusta for the Par 3 contest. Still riding the high

Quote:

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The continued coverage of the LIV guys wanting to have their cake and eat it too is turning people off.

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funny thing is now that the LIV guys have gotten paid (which BTW bears no relationship to the actual economics of pro golf), they have no reason to really care; and some of them (not all) look like they don't; especially the late career guys. I just don't see a path forward now and the ratings reflect that. Now the PGAT is going for the cash (PE money, massive fees to "host " events, etc.) which is another turn off in and of itself.

AggieDruggist89 said:

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Aggie95 said:

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I know golf is struggling with viewership in general but I'm not sure why at this point, especially for The Masters. There was no LIV vs PGA issue as the important LIV players were playing.

The 3rd round was great and it setup a pretty compelling leaderboard and tight battle to start the final round. What can the PGA do about the declining ratings?

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Clone Tiger

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I know you said it as a joke….but it's coming