LIV Golf Reports Tucson Ratings Are 24% Lower Than First 2023 Event

After both the Nielsen ratings and LIV Golf’s “preliminary” numbers gathered by iSpot TV are in, it appears that the second-year league is not yet building momentum.

LIV Golf is reporting an average of 409,000 viewers for the final two rounds of LIV Golf Tucson on Saturday and Sunday. The first round is only available via streaming in the United States, so it does not factor into the ratings. LIV’s reported figures for its season-opener at Mayakoba at 537,000—showing Tuscon to be a 24% drop.

LIV publicly said it was pleased with the viewership figures.

“I would characterize the launch of the first two events or inaugural league season as capturing significant viewership,” LIV chief media officer Will Staeger told GOLF.com. “I think overall, we’re pleased with the start and we’ve got a long way to go.”

Through two weeks, here's a picture of how the TV ratings battle looks between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour.

(Numbers show average audience over Saturday and Sunday broadcast windows. LIV Tucson data still preliminary.)

Sources: internal data/iSpot pic.twitter.com/SN9aZ5V46S

— James Colgan (@jamescolgan26) March 24, 2023

The tweet above is a look at how things stand between LIV and the PGA Tour, which ran the Valspar Championship during the same time period.

That tournament featured a strong final round involving Jordan Spieth, Adam Schenk, and Tommy Fleetwood before each faltered, leaving Taylor Moore to win his first PGA Tour title.

Absolutely incredible finish! Congratulations to Taylor Moore on being the Valspar Championship 2023 Champion. pic.twitter.com/sGnjkLxTww

— Valspar Championship (@ValsparChamp) March 19, 2023

The Valspar ratings listed above are from Nielsen. Additionally, Nielsen figures put the weekend coverage of LIV Golf Tucson, which saw Danny Lee prevail in a four-way playoff over Louis Oosthuizen, Brendan Steele, and Carlos Ortiz, at 279,000.

One reason why LIV’s numbers are higher is possibly due to around a quarter of CW affiliates not airing the golf product. LIV has found other local affiliates to air the coverage, but Nielsen’s numbers do not figure into that total.

So far, LIV hasn’t gone up against any of the PGA Tour’s designated events. For example, the final round of The Players Championship on March 12 drew 4.14 million viewers, which is around 40% higher than the final round of the Valspar Championship.

LIV Golf Orlando takes place this weekend against the Valero Texas Open, which doesn’t feature a very strong field since most top golfers are taking the week off before the Masters.

Ready for that Florida sunshine ☀️#LIVGolf pic.twitter.com/Wl5uecg3kh

— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) March 26, 2023

Cover Image via Twitter