Earlier this year, Stewart Cink told Sports Illustrated that he was pessimistic about Scottie Scheffler’s effect as a ratings driver.
“We have a dominant player, Scottie Scheffler, right now who’s just incredible,” Cink said, “who is probably not the guy that people are turning on the TV to watch like they used to with Tiger Woods when he was doing the same thing. That’s just the difference in the personalities of those two guys. Nothing against Scottie.”
The TV viewership at the 2025 PGA Championship might have proven that statement to be true.
CBS drew an average audience of 4.76 million people for the final round of Scheffler’s five-stroke victory at Quail Hollow Golf Club. That’s a decrease of 4% from Xander Schauffele’s win in 2024, in which he birdied the 72nd hole to edge Bryson DeChambeau by a stroke at Valhalla Golf Club.
Granted, Sunday’s round was up 5% from Brooks Koepka’s win in 2023.
Ratings this year were down for all three days of the year’s second major. Round 3 averaged 3.11 million viewers on CBS, down 12% from ‘24. Round 1 on ESPN had an average of 955,000 viewers, a decrease of 13% from last year, and the second round averaged 1.3 million, down 19% from ‘24.
Part of that can be attributed to the fact that Woods was playing last year, though, he finished 60th.
The ratings dip this year comes as a surprise, as PGA Tour television audiences have been on an uptick this season, including a record audience for the Masters.
However, to say Scheffler doesn’t drive viewership isn’t entirely fair. Three weeks ago, the world No. 1’s runaway, record-tying victory at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson saw a 66% increase on CBS from last season.
But for whatever reason, the PGA Championship didn’t see the same bump.
More Golf Coverage on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as 2025 PGA Championship TV Ratings Are In, and They Are a Surprise.
