2020 PGA Ratings Roundup: CBS Up With Final Round Peaking At 6.8 Million Viewers; ESPN Draws Best Cable Numbers In Decade

The 2020 PGA Championship started a new 11-year deal for CBS and ESPN with a west coast date but without fans in the COVID-19 era. The lack of buzz did not hurt the numbers, however.

According to Showbuzzdaily, the final round on CBS drew a 3.27 average Nielsen rating, and peaked at 6.873 million during the back nine. That’s up from last year’s first-ever May playing but down significantly from the most recent August playing in 2018 when Brooks Koepka dueled with Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, among others.

ESPN’s week was also a big success, with early Sunday coverage up over 60% from last year, a significantly younger audience, and the most-watched cable portion of the PGA Championship in 10 years. From the ESPN press release:

Sunday’s final round coverage, which aired from noon until 3 p.m. ET, averaged 1,965,000 viewers, up 60 percent over TNT’s final-round telecast from 2019 and the most-viewed final round on cable since 2010. Sunday’s telecast peaked at 2.4 million viewers and was above 2 million from 1:15 – 3 p.m.

Across all four rounds, ESPN averaged 1,659,000 viewers and 399,000 viewers in the ages 18-49 demographic, up 35 percent and 54 percent, respectively, from TNT’s coverage last year. In addition to being the most-viewed PGA Championship on cable since 2010, ESPN’s average of ages 18-49 viewers was up 40 percent over the past five years.

Younger viewers helped drive the increases – viewership among adults ages 18-34 was up 76 percent from 2019 and this was the most-viewed version of the championship on cable in the demographic since 2009.

On the PGA downside, only one of Golf Channel’s “Live From” shows appeared in the cable top 150 last week. Saturday’s post-round show drew a .02 and an average of 111,000 viewers, not quite enough to catch an ESPN middle-of-the-night Korean Baseball Organization game between the Lotte Giants vs. Doosan Bears.

Also, only one LPGA broadcast from last week registered a top 150 rating, Thursday’s opening round of the Marathon Classic, which lagged behind even the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Why the LPGA insisted on playing Thursday to Sunday against a men’s major, when fans were not welcome and scheduling should be more flexible, is a mystery only Commissioner Mike Whan can answer.

The numbers from ShowBuzzDaily:

Things NOT Overheard At The 2020 PGA Championship

Everything about the 2020 PGA Championship week was a success, from compliance with COVID-19 guidelines to the quality of play. But with only essential personnel, coaches and media on site—no ten-percenters though—the energy was quite different. So were the things you did not get to overhear.

—I miss having my agent here to watch me warm up and blocking everyone from learning my secrets.

—Baba booey.

—The Wannamaker Trophy’s lid is clipped on tight, ready to go for the ceremony!

—Sure wish we could wear shorts during the competition days.

—Where is my agent to cut these post-round interview sessions short?

—Mashed potatoes.

—Every course should have bunkers like this.

—Do you have some sunscreen I can borrow?

—Phil needs to drink more coffee.

—Hey kids, sorry I can’t sign now, I’ll getcha after the round. 

—My agent will help with that.

—It’s just not a PGA without hearing the same Omega ad played over and over again.

—That was really smart of Brooks Koepka to belittle the competition, he’s got ‘em right where he wants ‘em.

—My agent makes one helluva breakfast omelet AND does the best laundry pickup.

—I think they’re about to post the Weather Warning sign.

—Where’s Steiny?

—I really miss TNT.

—Playing without fans is one thing, but playing a major without my agent here really drives home the seriousness of this pandemic.

CBS Shows Major High Of 1.69 Shots Per Minute

It’s a major tradition unlike any other: the Classic Sports TV breakdown of shots shown.

And breaking news: CBS blew away last year’s PGA performance to show more shots than ever previously documented for any major.

Check out the breakdown here, but this is noteworthy:

This resulted in an average of 1.69 strokes per minute which is by far the highest I have ever recorded for any golf major since starting this tracking in 2014. The previous high was 1.41 for the 2017 Masters. For comparison, the 2019 PGA had only 1.14 shots per minute.

With no paying spectators in attendance, CBS focused on golf rather than fan reactions. With so many players in contention, CBS moved around constantly and showed between 48 and 57 strokes for seven different players. Eleven players received coverage for at least 10 shots.

I have seen quite a bit of grumbling that Morikawa did not get more coverage and an on-course reporter.

I’m sorry people, but there was a 7-way tie with an hour to go and he’s 23, largely unproven. What is a producer to do but try and show as many as possible in a race like that and hope you get lucky backing the right horse.

Dolch To PGA Tour's Thomas: "We can hear you."

Longtime golf writer Craig Dolch makes a strong and civilized case for Justin Thomas to consider after some less-than-great language overheard during last week’s PGA Championship.

There’s a huge difference between trash talking, like West Palm Beach native Brooks Koepka did before the final round – when he pointed out he was the only player on the leaderboard with more than one major – and talking trash like Thomas did at least twice during his final round.

Every year the PGA Tour receives complaints from the FCC from viewers after hearing expletives during a golf telecast. Tiger Woods memorably dropped the f-bomb during a Saturday morning telecast in 2000, when he knocked his tee shot at Pebble Beach’s 18th hole into the Pacific Ocean while completing a rain-delayed second round.

Spit happens on a golf course. But there’s an easy cure.

As Dolch notes, PGA Tour fines don’t mean much and have long been an unsuccessful deterrent to swearing. And it’s a double-edged sword, as we love to see passionate players get in their strange little zones on the course. Yet in the open microphone era of fan-free COVID-19, they also have to be aware that more can be heard than ever before.

Since pace of play has improved without fans and backstopping seems to have finally become less of a thing, maybe it’s time for the Commissioner to send a friendly reminder for players to try their best to choose their words more carefully.

Six Takeaways From Collin Morikawa's 2020 PGA Championship Win

I covered plenty on winner Collin Morikawa, the 16th shot for the ages, Phil’s audition(?) on CBS, Tiger’s short game letting him down, the incredible leaderboard logjam, the curious “who is longest” debate this weekend and more for The Athletic.

You can check it out here and as always, thanks for support my work here, there and wherever it appears!

Friendly Reminder To Golf Pros: Do Not Call 911 When Your Backpack Gets Stolen

Theft is dreadful and I do feel for Bud Cauley, who played last week’s PGA Championship after getting in as an alternate. Experiencing a break-in resulting in the loss of his backpack undoubtedly caused enormous inconvenience and frustration.

However, reading that he called 911 and was unhappy he could not get through or to get an officer on the scene, seems like a fine opportunity to remind everyone that 911 is for emergencies only.

I could only read half the comments but I’m fairly sure that by the end the Governor was the thief and jamming the 911 lines to cover up his crime.

View this post on Instagram

Tpc Harding is a great golf course but you can have the rest of that place. My car window got busted in yesterday, in the middle of a busy street and someone stole my backpack. i called 911 and couldn’t get a police officer to come because they were so overworked. Dump!

A post shared by budcauley (@budcauley) on Aug 10, 2020 at 4:25am PDT

USGA, R&A Delay Next Phase Of Distance Research, Again

Way back in July the voters here overwhelmingly feel there is no better time than now to expedite the inevitable plan of action, the R&A and USGA have announced a second pandemic-related delay of their Distance Insights Project.

For Immediate Release:

UPDATE FROM THE R&A AND THE USGA ON GOLF’S DISTANCE INSIGHTS PROJECT

10 August 2020, St Andrews, Scotland and Liberty Corner, NJ, USA:  On 18 March 2020, The R&A and the USGA announced that the release of research topics related to the next phase of the Distance Insights Project would be delayed to allow the wider golf industry to focus on its response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Given continued health concerns and the impact on golf worldwide, The R&A and the USGA are now targeting March 2021 for the release of equipment research topics. We will continue to monitor the recovery of the golf industry and may update this target date accordingly. In accordance with the Equipment Rulemaking Procedures, the time for golf equipment manufacturers and other interested parties to participate in this research will also be amended to account for the delay.

In the interim, The R&A and the USGA will continue to monitor the effects of distance on the game. 

Beyond Equipment Rulemaking Procedures, the review of golf course design, set-up, and maintenance, as well as the availability and choice of appropriate teeing grounds, will continue, in support of golf’s long-term health.

Collin Morikawa Wins 2020 PGA Championship To Cap Wild, Bizarre And Memorable First Major Of 2020

Geoffshackelford.com readers had faith in the 23-year-old

Those words are surreal to type given that just three years ago we were getting ready to know Collin Morikawa better at the 2017 Walker Cup. Even though he stayed at Cal for four years and was an All-American in each, and even though he seems to average 69.2 at every level he plays, it’s nonetheless stunning to see him win at 23 against a field where nearly all of the top players were relevant on a course presented in classic major championship fashion.

Even better, while his ability to hit fairways and overall steadiness was vital, it was the one major risk he took Sunday at the par-4 16th that made the difference. Here’s is Ben Everill’s account at PGATour.com on a shot we’ll talk about for years to come.

I’ve filed for The Athletic on that and many other components from the day, but just in case you missed the shot for the ages, here is Morikawa driving the 16th green where he made eagle en route to his -13 winning total.

PGA: "What Mickelson brought to the booth was a breath of fresh air."

Sean Zak at Golf.com sums up the whirlwind energy booster that was Phil Mickelson’s booth (audition?) appearance on Saturday’s CBS PGA Championship coverage.

Mickelson joined the national broadcast for 90 electric minutes shortly after his third round Saturday, and despite the golf at TPC Harding Park being plenty entertaining on its own, what Mickelson brought to the booth was a breath of fresh air. A liveliness filled with information. If social media was any indication — and in this case it probably is — Mickelson’s performance was a hit. Once he really found his groove, it was perhaps his best work on the golf course this season.

The appearance, at least the part I could hear between some other duties and golf watching on site, was this: while over-caffeinated, Mickelson gave the show a jolt of life and inside-the-ropes energy akin to what Tony Romo has brought to CBS’s NFL coverage. Delineating something as small as the difference between missing the 4th fairway right, instead of left, just took you into that mindset of an all-time great who is also competing this week.

But more than that, he just brought a willingness to talk, inject life and make things fun. Generally, I’d say he was almost talking too much, but he also dispelled the myth that golf announcing has to be hushed. Golf needs this kind of analysis and energy to match the increased quality of the pictures and overall production delivery (which CBS is doing this week…along with help from the Kaze drone team and Goodyear Blimp crews bringing the prime cut eye candy).

Now, Phil’s energy level does call into question his motives. Maybe he just had a stronger than usual coffee that is the secret to his weight loss. Or, has he realized his future and it involves getting fit for an IFB and blue CBS blazer? Could he bring a similar passion when under contract and with nothing to prove? Or when he’s not actually playing that week?

We won’t know what the motives (or caffeine infusion levels) were, but it was a tantalizing audition that, bluntly, left the rest of the telecast feeling flat. This, despite a very competent broadcast, strong contributions from on course, a few amazing putts and genuine amazement from the announce team, and some amazing visuals combining on-course sound and drone shots. (Haotong Li and caddie talking while the drone gave us a wide shot of the Cypress, Lake Merced and overall scene was a magical production moment so good it’d seem fake to previous generations of producers.)

There’s always a but, though.

Phil’s first attempt at a joke was, in a nutshell, painful.

What a beautifully awkward bit with Phil, Nantz and Faldo *chefs kiss* pic.twitter.com/XwTkQ4ZA0c

— Outside The Cut (@OutsideTheCut) August 8, 2020

Instant Poll: Who Is Going To Win The 2020 PGA Championship?

Holy Harding Park do we have a zany Sunday on tap at the 2020 PGA. As I wrote for The Athletic, this roar-free setting is going to take leaderboard watching to another level. Or not.

—2 players a shot back of Dustin Johnson.

—Eleven within three strokes of Johnson.

—Sixteen within four.

For what it’s worth—weather forecast is a crapshoot here—sun and good breezes are forecast for the leaders window Sunday. They were Saturday as well when the fog returned and the wind largely stood down.

So here goes, place your votes for the first major of 2020.

Who will win the 2020 PGA Championship?

Dustin Johnson (-9)

Scottie Scheffler (-8)

Cameron Champ (-8)

Collin Morikawa (-7)

Paul Casey (-7)

Brooks Koepka (-7)

One of the -6's (DeChambeau, Finau, Rose, Day, Berger, Fleetwood)

 

pollcode.com free polls

ESPN's Second Round PGA Broadcast Up In Multiple Ways

With prime time and the Woods-McIlroy-Thomas grouping in the main ESPN window, the worldwide leader had a strong Friday from Harding Park.

For Immediate Release:

The live telecast of the second round of the PGA Championship on ESPN on Friday, Aug. 7, from TPC Harding Park in San Francisco attracted an average audience of 1,763,000 viewers, the event’s largest second round viewership since 2015 and an increase of 20 percent over TNT’s telecast of the second round last year.

The numbers continued the momentum ESPN established with its live coverage of the first round on Thursday, which averaged 1,246,000 viewers, making it the event’s most-viewed first round telecast since 2015 and the second-best opening round in the last 10 years. Friday’s telecast was up 42 percent in viewership from Thursday’s first round.

With golf superstars including Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy in competition during East Coast prime time, ESPN’s audience built early in their rounds and peaked with 2,260,000 viewers from 7-7:15 p.m. ET. The telecast, which ran from 4-10:45 p.m., averaged more than 2 million viewers from 6-10 p.m.

Through two rounds, ESPN is averaging 1,507,000 viewers, including 349,000 viewers in the 18-49 age group. The numbers are up 21 percent and 37 percent, respectively, from TNT’s telecasts of the first two rounds in 2019 and represent the most-viewed first two rounds since 2015.

2020 PGA: Given The Chance To Bend The Spirit Of The Rules, McIlroy Passes

When Rory McIlroy missed his tee shot right of Harding Park’s third green, the usual army of volunteers and three-deep crowds was not there to direct him to the ball.  After his group that included Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas had hit their approaches, the marshals on hand headed to the green’s right side. It was down deep.

According to Kama Yechoor, a volunteer who had finished his shift and was watching the group, those on hand were looking for the ball in an area pin-high right. Turns out, Rory had not flown nearly that far and the ball was sitting well down somewhere beside the fronting greenside bunker.

Jane Crafter, a former LPGA great and longtime commentator working ESPN’s Featured Group coverage, approached the scene to assess the tee shots and was going to help the search.  Everyone this week is a marshal without spectators. No one wants to see a player lose a ball. Even though the bluegrass roughs were topped off at 3.5 inches, the tall stuff is already a stout five inches in shaded areas.

“I didn’t see it, but I felt it,” Crafter said. She stepped on McIlroy’s ball as she approached.

When McIlroy and caddie Harry Diamond arrived, Crafter was told what had happened, according to Yechoor. He called for a ruling.

The task fell to Mark Dusbabek, a roving official working as part of the PGA of America’s rules team this week situated off the nearby 13th fairways. He is also a full-time PGA Tour rules official and before that, a former linebacker who played three years for the Minnesota Vikings.

Dusbabek told McIlroy that he was entitled to replace the ball under rule 14-2, which addresses a ball at rest moved by an outside agency. Since Crafter did not see the lie, Dusbabek told McIlroy that they had to “estimate what the lie was.”

So McIlroy placed the ball down next to the spot where it had been embedded, laying it on top of the dense rough. Dusbabek, kneeling low and conversing quietly with McIlroy, looked at the two-time former PGA Champion.

“He said he didn’t feel comfortable with it sitting on top like that,” Dusbabek said.

Dusbabek told McIlroy he could place it to how he thought it might have sat before the accidental embedding.

“No one really knew what the lie was, but if everyone is going around looking for it, it obviously wasn't too good,” McIlroy said after the round. “So I placed it, I was like, that just doesn't look right to me. So I just placed it down a little bit.”

Not giving himself an advantage all but ruled out saving par after short-siding himself with the tee shot.

“It was a better lie than he probably would have had since I couldn’t see it,” Crafter said. “But he certainly did not give himself much to work with.”

After a second round 69 that included six birdies and a triple bogey, McIlroy explained his thinking.

“You know, at the end of the day, golf is a game of integrity and I never try to get away with anything out there. I'd rather be on the wrong end of the rules rather than on the right end because as golfers, that's just what we believe. Yeah, I would have felt pretty wrong if I had of taken a lie that was maybe a little better than what it was previously.”

Given the recent efforts of some elite players to fiddle with or overtly stomp on the spirit of the game, McIlroy’s instinct to not abuse the rules seemed especially refreshing.

Class act: reporter accidentally stepped on @McIlroyRory’s ball in 3rd green search, official Mark Dusbabek allows him to place, Rory isn’t comfortable with the lie because it’s too good. Resets it lower in rough. Makes bogey. @PGAChampionship pic.twitter.com/C8xXOXFSmu

— Geoff Shackelford (@GeoffShac) August 7, 2020

Ratings: ESPN Delivers Five-Year PGA First Round High, Peaks At 1.5 Million Viewers

Not surprisingly, the 2020 PGA Championship first round fared well in the ratings department thanks to a west coast playing and eastern prime time audience. Even without Tiger Woods who will be in the prime time window Friday.

For Immediate Release:

ESPN’s live telecast of the opening round of the PGA Championship on Thursday, Aug. 6, from TPC Harding Park in San Francisco averaged 1,246,000 viewers, making it the event’s most-viewed first round telecast since 2015 and the second-best opening round in the last 10 years.

ESPN’s telecast, which ran from 4-10:30 p.m. ET, peaked at 1,509,000 viewers between 7:15-7:30 p.m. ET and every quarter-hour of the telecast until 10 p.m. averaged more than 1 million viewers. Viewership was up 24 percent from last year’s first-round telecast on TNT and up 31 percent among adults ages 18-49.

Sports TV Ratings: 2020 WGC FedEX St Jude Won Last Weekend

CBS Sports’ Final-Round Coverage of @WGCFedEx is Most-Watched Sports Broadcast of Weekend pic.twitter.com/ulxT9SkR2T

— CBS Sports PR (@CBSSportsGang) August 4, 2020

The Clippers/Lakers NBA return on Thursday won the week (barely), but CBS’s coverage of the WGC FedEx St Jude was the highest rated weekend sports broadcast, according to ShowBuzzDaily. The telecast featured a wild final round eventually won by Justin Thomas.

More impressively, it was played against increased sports competition returning from the COVID-19 breaks and summertime weather that often puts a huge damper in ratings (see the 2019 comparable weekend below).

The numbers marked an upgrade over last year’s dreadfully rated FedEx St Jude and the Wyndham Championship, played on a comparable weekend in 2019.

The 2019 numbers:

What Rust? Refreshed Tiger Gets The Better Of McIlroy, Thomas At The PGA

My story for The Athletic on Tiger’s solid opening round at Harding Park focused on the weird start, group vibe and Tiger’s slight miss at 8 that prevented an opening 67.

ESPN.com’s Bob Harig focused on a similar theme—the surreal start to the round when three of the game’s biggest names were met with silence.

Alan Shipnuck at Golf.com focused on Tiger’s ability to get the most out a so-so day.

Highlights from the featured group that goes at 1:58 pm PT Friday.