Rory McIlroy proven right over LIV Golf warning after his struggles at The Open

Rory McIlroy's worries about the declining TV ratings for golf's major events seem to be well-founded, as the Open recorded its lowest viewership in almost a decade.

The tournament at Royal Troon saw Xander Schauffele emerge victorious, clinching his second major championship of the year so far - finishing two strokes ahead of his closest competitors. His performance in the final round at the iconic Scottish course allowed him to fend off the challenges from Justin Rose and Billy Horschel to secure the win.

Despite the thrilling action over the weekend, the 152nd Open Championship witnessed a dip in ratings on American networks NBC and Peacock. In fact, the 3.39 million who tuned in marked the smallest audience for the event since 2015, recording its worst ratings in nearly a decade on Sunday and a four per cent drop from the previous year.

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This appears to be part of a trend that has been observed recently, with viewing figures generally decreasing across the sport. Similarly, the final round at the Masters this year experienced a 20 per cent drop in viewers, with CBS attracting a reported audience of 9.589 million.

The statistics align with McIlroy's previous warnings about the declining interest in golf's major prizes , as reflected in viewership numbers. The Northern Irish golfer had stated: "If you look at the TV ratings of the PGA Tour this year, they're down 20 per cent across the board. That's a fifth. That's big. I would say the numbers on LIV aren't great either in terms of the people tuning in.

"I just think with the fighting and everything that's gone on over the past couple of years, people are just getting fatigued, and it's turning people off men's professional golf, and that's not a good thing for anyone. It's going to be really interesting to see how the four major championships do, or even the three, because put Augusta aside, I think that sort of lives in its own world."

Despite his earlier criticism of players who switched to the LIV Golf tour, McIlroy seems to have adopted a broader perspective recently. The winner of four major championships has confessed that he wants to see the sport itself continue to thrive, despite the internal conflict that has erupted in recent years.

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He expressed: "I don't think there should be a punishment. Obviously I've changed my tune on that because I see where golf is and I see that having a diminished PGA Tour and having a diminished LIV Tour or anything else is bad for both parties. It would be much better being together and moving forward together for the good of the game."

In the meantime, LIV CEO Greg Norman also expressed approval of McIlroy's shift in stance while discussing the current tensions in golf on the Fairway to Heaven podcast. He stated: "The reason I say I appreciate Rory falling on his sword, to some degree, is the fact that he did judge us by not knowing the facts.

"He judged us based on other people's thoughts and opinions. So, I say, 'hey, thank you, Rory'. We all knew it was going to work within the golf ecosystem. We all wanted to be there, we are going to be there he said that. To me, this is a hugely significant turning point for everybody.