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LIV Golf Draws Highest U.S. TV Rating but Still Far Behind PGA Tour in Week Before Masters

LIV Golf Miami had its best ratings result to date, but still trails the PGA Tour for viewers.

Matt Vincenzi

Marc Leishman got his first ever LIV win at LIV Miami.
Marc Leishman got his first ever LIV win at LIV Miami. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

For the first time ever, LIV Golf went up against the PGA Tour on a Sunday while on the main Fox channel.

LIV, which played at Trump Doral's Blue Monster for LIV Golf Miami, had high expectations entering the week—it was arguably its most important to date.

The PGA Tour staged the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, which lacked many stars on the leaderboard on Sunday, with former British Open winner Brian Harman coasting to victory.

According to Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal the PGA Tour, which was aired on NBC, drew 1.746M viewers for its final round, which was down 20% from Akshay Bhatia's win last year that drew 2.179 million.

LIV Miami drew 484,000 during its final round for Marc Leishman's win on Fox.

Although LIV lagged behind the PGA Tour in ratings, it was LIV's best number in the U.S. to date. According to Carpenter, LIV's previous high was 432,000 for the 2024 season opener.

The difference between LIV appearing on Fox and FS1 was clear, and on Friday LIV (369K on Fox) outdrew the PGA Tour on Golf Channel (318K).

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Matt Vincenzi
MATT VINCENZI

Matt Vincenzi is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, covering golf. Before joining SI in October 2024, he worked as a golf writer for GolfWRX and the Action Network. He is a graduate of Bridgewater State University and has been covering professional golf for five years.

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