PGA Championship Sees Highest Ratings in 9 Years with Tiger Finishing Second

In what has to be the least surprising news of the day, the PGA Championship ratings were up. In fact, they were up a lot.

How much?

The third round 3.7 overnight rating was up 54% over last year and was the highest rated since 2009.

The final round earned a 6.1 overnight rating on CBS. That is up 69% from last year which earned an overnight rating of 3.5, and up 56% from 2016. It is the highest final round rating for the tournament since 2009 when, no surprise here, Tiger Woods finished as a runner-up to Y.E. Yang.

According to Paulsen Sports Media Watch, the final round peaked at an 8.3 between 7:00 – 7:15 p.m. Eastern, which is right around the time that Woods and Koepka were wrapping up their rounds.

Impressively, this marks the fifth time this season that a golf broadcast has had an overnight rating over 5.0. That only happened one time in 2017.

"Of the 11 highest rated PGA rounds this season, eight have featured Woods in contention — the third and final rounds of the PGA, British Open and Tampa Bay and the final rounds at the Players Championship and Bay Hill."

The only final round rating higher than this week was the 7.9 the Masters earned earlier this year.

The overnights for 2018:

Masters: 7.9
U.S. Open: 3.6
The Open: 5.0
PGA: 6.1

Tiger Woods has either won or finished second in all the final round ratings that scored higher for the PGA Championship since 2000.

It’s obvious to anyone with a brain that Tiger Woods moves the needle. As our Jason McIntyre noted, he’s one of those sports figures you have to tune in to watch if he’s in contention on a Sunday, especially in a major.

Tiger being back in this type of form is great for the game. The fans love it, the players love it, and the networks love it, so let’s appreciate it while we can.