The Official Ratings Are In: PGA Tour Trounces LIV Golf in First Head-to-Head Network Battle

We saw limited overnight data from LIV Golf at Mayakoba and first-round information from The PGA Tour’s Honda Classic yesterday, but now the final results are in.

It appears that LIV has an uphill battle to climb.

Here’s the head-to-head comparison.

For comparison’s sake, the first round of The Honda Classic Thursday afternoon on Golf Channel drew 342,000 and 50,000 in the 18-49 demo. The rating, however, was a 0.23 because Golf Channel is in fewer homes than the CW Network. It’s fair to say that LIV’s numbers are on par with the first round of last week’s PGA Tour event.

🚨Official ratings are in. This is US viewership for LIV on CW and Honda on NBC. People can make the argument about international audiences, streaming #’s etc but we all know US is the biggest market. It’s why LIV flaunted being in 120M+ homes on US TV (via @JoshACarpenter) pic.twitter.com/jFp8ShOEun

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) February 28, 2023

This weekend’s coverage of The Honda Classic, which featured only three of the top 20 golfers in the world and saw Chris Kirk and Eric Cole battling it out in a playoff on Sunday, was on NBC and had 2.38 million viewers on Sunday. The tournament, which was down 7% from a year ago, trailed one of two NBA games on ABC and NASCAR on Fox in total viewers.

The lowest-rated sporting event on network TV this past week was the Creighton vs. Villanova college basketball game Saturday at noon on Fox. That event had 730,000 viewers, with 230,000 in the demo and a 0.38 rating.

Among all sporting events on all channels, LIV Golf beat a handful of college basketball games during the week. The only event it beat in the 18-49 demo was a baseball spring training contest between the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays. That game on Sunday at 1 p.m. on MLB Network had 29,000 viewers in 18-49.

LIV’s next event is from Tucson, Arizona, on March 17-19. It will go head to head with the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship from the Tampa Bay, Florida, area. Even though it comes a week after The Players Championship, names like Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, and two-time defending champ Sam Burns have committed to that event.

Cover Image Via LIV Gold Media Hub