Ludvig Åberg’s Win at Genesis Invitational Led to Monster TV Ratings for PGA Tour

The young star winning one of the Tour’s signature events led to the most-watched non-major in nearly a year.

Ludvig Aberg won the Genesis Invitational, which Tiger Woods hosts. / Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

The Genesis Invitational was a massive ratings success. 

As Ludvig Åberg hunted down Maverick McNealy to win one of the PGA Tour’s signature events, 3.4 million people tuned in on CBS, according to Sports Business Journal. 

That’s up 5% from last year when 3.2 million watched Hideki Matsuyama’s victory. The viewership is the same, however, from 2023 when Jon Rahm outdueled Max Homa. In 2022, 2.6 million tuned in for Joaquin Niemann's wire-to-wire win. 

Sunday’s ratings make the Genesis the most-watched non-major since the 2024 Players Championship. 

A few factors besides the competitive golf and well-known champion could have contributed to the high number. It was a holiday weekend, much of the country was experiencing frigid temperatures and snow and Tiger Woods made an appearance in the CBS broadcast booth, opening up about his mother’s death for the first time publicly and giving an update on the PIF-PGA Tour negotiations. 

Ratings were trending down early in the PGA Tour season but the last few weeks have revealed an upward trajectory. 

Sunday of the WM Phoenix Open averaged 2.9 million, up 21% from 2024. The week before, the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am attracted 3.3 million viewers for Rory McIlroy’s victory, which was the highest-rated non-major until the Genesis.