Masters TV Ratings for Sunday’s Final Round Down 20% From 2023

Ratings for PGA Tour events have been down all year and the final round of the year's first major was no better.

Apr 14, 2024; Augusta, Georgia, USA; Scottie Scheffler hits onto the No. 18 green during the final / Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Network

Scottie Scheffler made history Sunday at the Masters in winning his second green jacket, but fewer watched the proceedings than a year ago.

According to Josh Carpenter of the Sports Business Journal, the final-round viewership for CBS on Sunday was 9.589 million, down 20 percent from 2023 when Jon Rahm won by four shots over Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson.

Golf viewership continues to drop: CBS drew 9.589M viewers for the final round of the Masters on Sunday, down 20% from last year.

Scottie Scheffler's four-shot win was the second-largest deficit of the season.

Lowest final round since 2021 (9.450M for Hideki Matsuyama's win) pic.twitter.com/gZsrJ1ZUam

— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) April 16, 2024

Part of the dip is due to the fact that last year's final round fell on Easter Sunday, which meant a bump of 21% in out-of-home viewership. This year's final round received only a 9% out-of-home increase.

Like Rahm, Scheffler also won by four shots, as his pursuers fell back with miscues before and around Amen Corner, making the final few holes relatively drama-free for the world No. 1, who won for the third time in his last three starts. 

Among those wins was a second consecutive triumph at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship. But that did not deliver ratings either, as the final round had the lowest rating for NBC in a decade.

That continued a trend for Tour ratings this year, as pro golf’s schism continues into a third year with two circuits: the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. 

“If you look at the TV ratings of the PGA Tour this year, they’re down 20 percent across the board. That’s a fifth. That’s big ... 20 percent’s a pretty jarring number,” Rory McIlroy said earlier this month at the Valero Texas Open.

ESPN reported its best rating in nine years for Thursday’s first round and that its Friday coverage was up 69% from 2023. Tiger Woods was playing during both of those broadcast windows.