Masters Green Jacket Presentation - Did Scotty Ignore Jon

[markTHEblake]

Bradbury won when the guys in front of him fell over. Schaller won when the guys behind him fell over. Not the same.

Schaller let the guys behind him catch up, then he pushed them over.

[Dotty]

More like the Road Runner pursued by half a dozen Wily Coyotes.

Whenever they caught him, he would merely go 'beep beep' and build a 2 shot buffer.

[rickie prowler]

So was Tiger Woods.

Tiger was edgy, a ruthless bad sport, came from a golfing minority and hit the ball in a way never seen before. He was box office.

[PeterCool]

Lowest ratings Master by 20% on last year. So Rick Shields said on his podcast.

I do agree with him when he said if it was closer, and it was Rory and Bryson the ratings would have been through the roof.

The numbers are in from the 2024 Masters Tournament, and they should worry everyone associated with the sport.CBS Sports drew 9.589 million viewers for the final round at Augusta National, a 20% decrease from when Jon Rahm triumphed a season ago, according to Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal.

With that said, last year’s final round fell on Easter Sunday, leading to more viewers and a significantly higher out-of-home lift on the holiday: +21% in 2023 versus +9% this year, per CBS Sports.
Coverage peaked at 12.562 million during the 7:00-7:15 p.m. ET quarter hour, when Scottie Scheffler putted out for the win.
Still, Scheffler’s historic victory had the lowest ratings of any Masters since 2021, when Hideki Matsuyama’s first major win drew 9.450 million.

But these numbers are nothing new to professional golf in 2024.

“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.” McIlroy said ahead of the Valero Texas Open.

People tuned away from The Masters, which typically draws the largest audience of any golf tournament each year.

Nonetheless, McIlroy, who has called for a unification between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, predicted this possibility ahead of his solo third-place finish at TPC San Antonio.
“If the numbers aren’t as good, it’s an argument to say we need to put everyone back together because people are losing interest in the game even if they don’t want to tune in to the four major championships,” McIlroy hypothesized on Apr. 3.
“Things need a correction, and things are unsustainable because I’m close with NBC and the people who really care about these things and the people who tune in to watch golf.”

Only one tournament on the PGA Tour this year has seen a year-to-year increase in ratings. That would be The American Express, which saw Nick Dunlap become the first amateur to win on tour since Mickelson did so in 1991.
It took a historic occurrence for the tour to see gains, a massive problem.

Even Scheffler’s unprecedented title defense at TPC Sawgrass did not produce a ratings increase in March, something that should concern PGA Tour brass. Scheffler’s masterful 8-under 64 on Sunday led him to finish one stroke ahead of Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman, in what many called the best tournament of the year.
Yet, that drew only 3.5 million viewers, down from 4.1 million a season ago.

The numbers do not lie, and they are screaming to everyone that professional golf is in dire straits.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.

[Chilled]

Bradbury won when the guys in front of him fell over. Scottie won when the guys behind him fell over. Not the same.

Essentially the same hence the term I used was "basically", they were all roughly around the same mark going into the final day, they came at him, they failed, he won.

Tiger was edgy, a ruthless bad sport, came from a golfing minority and hit the ball in a way never seen before. He was box office.

Yeah I loled when seeing anything in the way of a comparison between Tiger and Scottie.

[Yossarian]

Bradbury was coming dead last and was going to stay there.

[AndyP]

Bradbury was coming dead last and was going to stay there.

Yore rong. Now called "doing a Scheffler".

[Chilled]

I do agree with him when he said if it was closer, and it was Rory and Bryson the ratings would have been through the roof.

Absolutely it would have been. I can only imagine the ratings with Tiger contesting in 2019 on the final day. Scottie, whilst obviously a great golfer, is just batshit boring in just about every way.
He's just having his day in the sunshine right now, like Spieth ran hot back in the day, and plenty of other golfers have. Over time most fade, the greats don't.

[markTHEblake]

The ratings are down, so lets all blame Scheffler!


Though, ratings have ben down overall by the same amount for a while. Maybe more people are watching replays instead.

[Chilled]

PGATour events just haven't been the same since the players left for LIV, especially the high profile top 20 players. I know I'm not watching as much as I used to. Of course for me the Masters is always a non negotiable, I'll always watch it.

[Webster]

The ratings are down, so lets all blame Scheffler!

Boring slippy footed Jesus man is boring.

[markTHEblake]

You just racist boy

[Chilled]

Boring slippy footed Jesus man is boring.

No way, comon, Scottie would chest bump with the best of them....oh wait...

Capture.jpg

[PeterCool]

Absolutely it would have been. I can only imagine the ratings with Tiger contesting in 2019 on the final day. Scottie, whilst obviously a great golfer, is just batshit boring in just about every way.
He's just having his day in the sunshine right now, like Spieth ran hot back in the day, and plenty of other golfers have. Over time most fade, the greats don't.

Listening to the talk birdie to me podcast and both Mark and Nick said their goal was always to play the most boring predictable golf they could.

Good for them. Its just not entertainment and sport is there to entertain the viewers. Not bore them

[PeterCool]

The ratings are down, so lets all blame Scheffler!


Though, ratings have ben down overall by the same amount for a while. Maybe more people are watching replays instead.

I once heard a saying that I think rings true for so many people.

Why would you waste a day watching others live out their dreams whilst yours disappear?

Playing golf is booming.

Would you rather be playing golf or watching it?

Personally I think if my weekend only allows a certain amount of time Id pick playing over watching everytime

[3Puttpete]

I once heard a saying that I think rings true for so many people.

Why would you waste a day watching others live out their dreams whilst yours disappear?

Playing golf is booming.

Would you rather be playing golf or watching it?

Personally I think if my weekend only allows a certain amount of time Id pick playing over watching everytime

There’s a difference between watching boring golf and watching boring golfers.