Presidents Cup Viewing Figures Well Down As Golf's TV Slump Continues

Continuing what is a general theme this year, the viewing figures for the USA's latest Presidents Cup victory in Canada were well down on the 2022 edition.

The Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal Golf Club had some good momentum swings in it before ultimately Jim Furyk's Team USA got the better of Mike Weir's International side for the 10th time in a row.

So although the result was the same, the match itself had a decent amount of intensity and drama to appeal to audiences - most notably Tom Kim's spat with Scottie Scheffler.

But it failed to resonate according to the Nielsen viewing figures as published in the Sports Business Journal , with Sunday's broadcast on NBC down 28% from the 2022 numbers with just 1.37m tuning in as opposed to 1.89m.

The last event at Quail Hollow also brought in 1.89m on the Saturday, with this year's event managing just 1.21m on day three - a drop of 36%.

The USA stormed into a 5-0 lead on Thursday only for the International side to answer in kind with a 5-0 whitewash of their own on Friday to level the contest.

Furyk's Americans finally ran away to a 18.5-11.5 success but throw in the Kim-Scheffler battle and plenty of needle on both sides and you'd think the Presidents Cup was a big success.

It's not the only golf tournament to suffer from a slump in TV viewing figures though, with even the Majors recording a drop in numbers from last year.

The final round of Scheffler's Masters victory at Augusta National saw a 20% drop in viewing figures, while 17% fewer people saw him win The Players at Sawgrass.

Xander Schauffele's fine Open Championship success saw a nine-year low in terms of viewers and a 4% dip compared to last year, while even Bryson DeChambeau's thrilling win over Rory McIlroy at the US Open had a slight dip in figures from 2023.

At least the numbers for the Majors are pretty healthy though, with that US Open dip still seeing 5.9m viewers watch McIlroy's agonising near miss at Pinehurst No.2.

And the Masters still brought in 9.58m on Sunday to watch Scheffler pull on the Green Jacket for the second time - with both tournaments dwarfing those posted by the Presidents Cup.

For all the improvements of the event as a contest, it seems it has still not captured the imagination of golf fans on TV.