Tiger’s back, again! And I believe we know who was responsible for the 1997 ratings too.
For Immediate Release from Golf Channel:
MOST-WATCHED FIRST ROUND AT THE MEMORIAL SINCE 1997
DUBLIN, Ohio (July 17, 2020) – GOLF Channel’s first round coverage of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide (2:30-6:30 p.m. ET) saw 1.08 million average viewers, +152% year-over-year. Thursday’s telecast became the most-watched opening round at the Memorial since 1997 (1.18M average viewers, ESPN), and the most-watched weekday PGA TOUR telecast on GOLF Channel since the opening round of the 2018 TOUR Championship (1.25M average viewers).
Additional highlights:
Coverage peaked from 5:15-5:30 p.m. (1.25M average viewers).
GOLF Channel was the No. 1 cable sports network (2:30-6:30 p.m.) by 355%, and No. 4 of 114 Nielsen-rated cable networks.
Thursday evening’s encore telecast (7:30-11:30 p.m.) earned 337k average viewers, becoming the most-watched PGA TOUR replay telecast on GOLF Channel in more than five years (2015 PLAYERS Championship RD2, 364k average viewers).
Thursday became GOLF Channel’s most-watched day in 2020, and most-watched Thursday since The 2019 Open.