Five years ago, The Match established itself as a must-watch event. Four years on, not so much.
Monday night’s iteration of The Match, the ninth such event since the initial Tiger vs. Phil showdown in 2018, garnered an average of 511,000 viewers across TNT, TruTV, and HLN. While that’s a substantial number on its own for a standalone golf event on a Monday evening, it marked the lowest viewership numbers seen so far.
This year’s event featured Rory McIlroy, Rose Zhang, Max Homa, and Lexi Thompson.
Last year’s version, which featured Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Steph Curry, and Klay Thompson, garnered the previous low of 782,000 viewers.
All of those numbers are a fry cry from the 5.8 million that tuned in for The Match: Champions for Change, featuring Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning.
Monday’s event also included several surprise guest appearances from Paul Bissonnette, DJ Khaled, and Charles Barkley, though none of them could juice viewership in a meaningful way.
The event did raise almost $2 million for charity and was still a good way to bring together men’s and women’s golfers for a fun evening. Despite the lagging ratings, chances are that we’ll continue to see more of The Match given its relatively low cost and ardent, if shrinking, viewership base.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.