Cal Sports Report

Can Aaron Rodgers Attract  Viewers for Made-for-TV Golf Event?

Former Cal star provides humor in advance of The Match IV, which features Tom Brady, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson
Jake Curtis|
Can Aaron Rodgers Attract  Viewers for Made-for-TV Golf Event?
Can Aaron Rodgers Attract  Viewers for Made-for-TV Golf Event?

Will anyone watch The Match IV on Tuesday on TNT?

Former Cal star Aaron Rodgers, who is paired with Bryson DeChambeau against the duo of Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson in this made-for-TV charity event in Montana (Montana?), did a little promotional work last week with this humorous commentary on Brady’s performance last year.

Rodgers has said little publicly about his demand to be traded from the Packers. In fact, he has never stated his specific complaints about the Packers, saying only that it is about “people” in the Packers organization.

But he has said plenty about The Match IV, with this May presentation being one of his early Tweets on the subject:

Rodgers and Brady have engaged in a Twitter battle about each other’s golf game, and Brady has done most of the heavy hitting Twitter-wise in recent weeks.

The fact is, Rodgers is a better golf than Brady.

Rodgers’ best handicap is 3.5 while Brady's is about 8.1.

"I don’t think Brady’s an 8. I've played with him, and he’s good," Rodgers said in an interview with Golf Magazine, perhaps hyping the personal competition.

Rodgers finished tied for ninth in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2020. He worked with another Cal alum, Max Homa, to earn the top-10 finish.

Rodgers' best handicap is 3.5 while Brady's is about 8.1.

"I don’t think Brady’s an 8. I've played with him, and he’s good," Rodgers said in an interview with Golf Magazine.

Rodgers has golfed competitively more than Brady, especially of late. Rodgers finished tied for ninth in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2020. He worked with Max Homa to earn the top-10 finish.

That why DeChambeau and Rodgers are favored to win the match, according to Draft Kings:

DeChambeau and Rodgers (-182, which is about 1-to-2)

Mickelson and Tom Brady (+135, which is about 5-to-4)

If it matters to anyone, the contest will be played under modified alternate-shot match-play rules. All four will hit shots off the tee, each team will then choose which ball to play and hit subsequent shots alternately. Best score wins the hole.

But will anyone watch?

The Match II, held in May 2020 and featuring Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Mickelson and Brady, had outstanding TV ratings. TNT reported an average of 5.8 million people watched that event across TBS, TNT, TruTV and HLN, making it the highest rated golf event ever on cable television, topping the first round of the 2010 Masters on ESPN. Its average viewership was marginally better than the average viewership of 'The Last Dance," the documentary series about the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan.

But the Match II event was played on a Sunday afternoon in Florida, and it had Tiger. Match IV is on a Tuesday, starting at 5 p.m. on the East Coast and 2 p.m. on the West Coast. Rodgers played his high school, junior college and college football in Northern California, but will anyone from that region watch him play a round of golf in Montana on a Tuesday afternoon?

The Match III, played last November and featuring Mickelson and Charles Barkley against Manning and Steph Curry, was played on a Friday in Arizona and had a rating that was a small fraction of what The Match II had received. The Match III rating came in just behind “Love After Lockup” in cable-television ratings that day.

Will the names in The Match IV attract viewers nationwide?

Rodgers’ name has been in the news almost constantly in recent weeks, and the 43-year-old Tom Brady is coming off his seventh Super Bowl victory, probably making them the most ratings-ready pair in football.

DeChambeau received considerable publicity last week – albeit unwelcomed publicity – when he separated from his longtime caddie, then missed the cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. 

And his drives may travel forever in the high-altitude site of The Match IV, Big Sky, Montana, which is 2,000 feet higher than Denver. Some may watch just to see whether he can club one 400 yards.

And there is always Phil, a constant in this golf-event series who made headlines laast week for his complaints about an article in the Detroit News last week.

And Mickelson promoted Tuesday’s event a bit by tweeting a video regarding DeChambeau last week.

So these guys are newsmakers. But are they ratings-makers? On a Tuesday? In Montana? In an event that could last five or six hours? With the NBA Finals Game 1 starting on network TV about midway through that round?

The setting:

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Cover photo of Aaron Rodgers by Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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