Players’ move could halt TV ratings slide

With the flurry of activity Tuesday around the announced moves of the PGA Championship, Players Championship and BMW PGA, I thought it might be worthwhile to look back and see just exactly what prompted the Players to move to May initially.

With the flurry of activity Tuesday around the announced moves of the PGA Championship, Players Championship and BMW PGA, I thought it might be worthwhile to look back and see just exactly what prompted the Players to move to May initially.

In a teleconference on Jan. 11, 2006, then-Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, speaking with the heads of the NBC, CBS and Golf Channel networks, talked about the new TV deal that they had signed. As part of the discussion, Finchem announced the move of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass near the Tour’s headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., from March to May, starting in 2007.

“In moving The Players Championship to the second week in May, we think it positions the Players for maximum impact and fan interest,” Finchem proudly said during the conference call. “NBC will continue that broadcast, and in its new format, the broadcast will have limited commercial interruptions, and our sponsors or advertisers will be restricted to our three proud partners. The enhanced television coverage includes six hours of airtimes on Thursday and Friday on the Golf Channel, on each of Thursday and Friday on the Golf Channel, and now because of daylight, later air times on Saturday and Sunday on NBC from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. The combination of those two things allows us to really elevate the impact of the telecast of our flagship event.”

At the time, it all seemed to make sense: better time of year; more daylight, which means later start times; fewer commercial interruptions; and more coverage, bringing the Players into prime-time viewing on the weekends.

On March 22, 2006 at the Players, Finchem again outlined the benefits of the move, effective in 2007.

“I think the changes next year start with television; that's the most dynamic,” Finchem said. “Next year, we go to a limited-inventory commercial presentation, which we think is fundamental to the quality of the experience that our fans will enjoy as they watch this field on this golf course going forward: four minutes of inventory each hour. It will make for a superb telecast, all of it on HD television on the weekends, and later air times. Later air times will allow us to achieve or reach to an even greater audience at a time of year in May when a lot of people are playing golf, when a lot of our fans are playing golf.”

Finchem continued with the television theme throughout the news conference.

“We are delighted with the television position,” he said. “I think if we didn't do anything else, the quality of our broadcast and the way it's going to be reached or received by our fans around the world is going to be very special. The second thing, of course, is the date change. The date change affects the golf course and television. By moving to May, we have later air times; we have more daylight; we can play later, which translates into better television; we can reach more people.”

Of the many reasons for the Players to have moved from March to May, the only measurable one was television, specifically the ratings. From 1999 to 2006, in the eight seasons when the Players was held in March, the average Sunday overnight TV rating was 4.13.

When the event was moved to May in 2007, the ratings dropped to an average of 3.56. The 2.6 rating this year tied the mark for the worst rating ever for The Players Championship.

It’s possible that the course might be in better condition in May, and that the weather and attendance could be better than in March. But for a sport that is almost totally dependent on sponsorship and TV ratings, the return of the Tour’s flagship event to March could have unintended positive consequences.

One caveat: From 1999 to 2006, Tiger Woods dominated on Tour, but he won the Players only once during that stretch. When Woods won in 2013, the ratings spiked again. For almost everyone else post-2007, the numbers were abysmal.

Year	Rating	Winner	Runner(s)-up
1999	5.4	David Duval	Scott Gump
2000	5.6	Hal Sutton	Tiger Woods
2001	5.7	Tiger Woods	Vijay Singh
2002	5.3	Craig Perks	Stephen Ames
2003	4.2	Davis Love III	Jay Haas, Padraig Harrington
2004	4.1	Adam Scott	Padraig Harrington
2005	2.6	Fred Funk	Luke Donald, Tom Lehman, Scott Verplank
2006	3.1	Stephen Ames	Retief Goosen
Move to May
2007	3.7	Phil Mickelson	Sergio Garcia
2008	3.4	Sergio Garcia *	Paul Goydos
2009	4.1	Henrik Stenson	Ian Poulter
2010	3.3	Tim Clark	Robert Allenby
2011	3.4	K.J. Choi *	David Toms
2012	3.4	Matt Kuchar	Ben Curtis, Rickie Fowler, Zach Johnson, Martin Laird
2013	5.7	Tiger Woods	David Lingmerth, Jeff Maggert, Kevin Streelman
2014	2.6	Martin Kaymer	Jim Furyk
2015	3.9	Rickie Fowler *	Kevin Kisner, Sergio Garcia
2016	3.1	Jason Day	Kevin Chappell
2017	2.6	Si Woo Kim	Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter
March average	4.13
May average	3.56
* won playoff

Alex Miceli is the founder and publisher of Morning Read. Email: alex@morningread.com; Twitter: @AlexMiceli