The power of Easter Sunday’s out-of-home viewing was on full display once again this year. In particular, the PGA Tour saw huge returns from this year’s final round of the RBC Heritage.
Sunday’s final round telecast on CBS averaged 4.36 million viewers for Justin Thomas’ playoff victory over Andrew Novak.
It was Thomas’ first win on Tour since he took down the PGA Championship in 2022, and the most-watched final round of the RBC Heritage in 23 years. Viewership peaked at 6.07 million viewers on Sunday.
The final round more than doubled viewership from last year’s RBC Heritage, which averaged just 2.15 million viewers for Scottie Scheffler’s weather-impacted win that concluded Monday morning. Compared to 2023, viewership increased by 5% (4.15 million viewers for Matt Fitzpatrick’s playoff win over Jordan Spieth). Neither of the previous two final rounds fell on Easter as this year’s tournament did. Sunday secured the most-watched PGA Tour final round since the 2023 Tour Championship (4.61 million viewers).
Early round coverage of the event on Golf Channel also set all-time records, averaging 562,000 viewers across Thursday and Friday, up 35% versus last season. Golf Channel’s lead-in coverage on Sunday averaged 1.2 million viewers, up 30% versus last year.
Overall, the RBC Heritage continued a good run for the sport of golf on television this year. Of course, Rory McIlroy’s Masters thriller set a seven-year high for that event. But from a PGA Tour perspective, 10 of the last 11 final round telecasts have seen year-over-year increases. While that stat may be a bit misleading (10 of the Tour’s first 14 events have seen declines versus 2023), it shows that golf on television is at least seeing a bit of a resurgence after last year’s dreadful numbers.
CBS has been the beneficiary of some of those gains. The network’s season-to-date audience is 2.47 million viewers, up 26% versus this time last year. Additionally, four out of five final round broadcasts on CBS have increased year-over-year.
With McIlroy set to make his return to the PGA Tour this week in the Zurich Classic, CBS could be in for yet another increase.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.