The PGA Championship drew its largest CBS viewership in five years.
An average of 5.8 million people tuned in to watch Aaron Rai win the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday, which is the most since Phil Mickelson became golf’s oldest-ever major winner in 2021.
Those numbers were up 21% from last year’s championship at Quail Hollow, where Scottie Scheffler won his first Wanamaker Trophy.
These numbers are a great sign for golf’s popularity, but they are a dreadful sign for Bryson DeChambeau in his talks with the PGA Tour.
CBS’ viewership numbers are bad news for Bryson DeChambeau
These figures have given the PGA Tour all the leverage they need against DeChambeau. After the news that LIV Golf will no longer be backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund after this season, he’s been in public negotiations with the PGA Tour, and this won’t help him at all.
DeChambeau has been told that he’ll need to agree to a deal similar to the deal offered to Brooks Koepka if he wants to come back, but DeChambeau responded publicly, saying it was a shame because of “what I could do for them.”
He claims that his online following of over 2 million YouTube subscribers would bring in a large audience for the tour, but these PGA Championship viewership figures suggest that it doesn’t matter in the slightest.
DeChambeau missed the cut at Aronimink, but the audience didn’t seem to care. CBS still drew massive viewership, proving that perhaps DeChambeau doesn’t have the pull he thinks he does.
That’s a major blow to DeChambeau’s case that the PGA Tour needs him, and he’s lost yet more leverage in these negotiations.
Why this week could not have gone better for Jon Rahm
For Jon Rahm, however, this week could not have gone much better. He was one of the star names that pulled in the viewership at Aronimink, as his runner-up finish must have done a lot of the heavy lifting for CBS.
Not only did Rahm prove that he still has the ability to compete with the best players the PGA Tour has to offer, but he also showed he has the star power to make an impact on viewership numbers, so he’d be a real asset to the tour.
The biggest challenge Rahm faces is his current multi-year deal with LIV Golf, which he doesn’t think there are many ways out of. But there was some positive news for Rahm on that front, too, recently.
It has been reported that LIV Golf has begun laying the groundwork for a potential US bankruptcy filing if it fails to raise new funds. That could mean that Rahm could walk next season and earn his way back on the PGA Tour.
So if this was a bad week for DeChambeau, it was a brilliant one for Rahm.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
