Yahoo Sports Tiger Woods' first PGA Tour win in five years results in major ratings boost
It was a glorious and momentous Sunday for Tiger Woods, who won his first tournament in five years when he nailed down the Tour Championship with a final score of -11. But it was also a glorious day for NBC Sports, which saw its ratings of the Tour Championship get that precious Tiger bump.
The overnight ratings are in, and NBC Sports’ broadcast of the Tour Championship’s final round scored a 5.21. That’s the highest rating for a non-major PGA Tour broadcast in all of 2018. That 5.21 represents a 206 percent increase over 2017’s ratings, which clocked in at 1.70. Streaming was also up 521 percent over 2017, with 18.4 million minutes streamed across NBC Sports’ platforms.
But that 5.21 overnight rating doesn’t tell the whole story. From 5:30 to 6:00 pm, coverage peaked at 7.19. During that time, Tiger finished up his final round, and was crowned the winner of the Tour Championship, followed by Justin Rose receiving the FedEx Cup for his season of excellence. The crowd on hand seemed to reflect the increased viewers watching at home. A massive sea of people followed Tiger from hole to hole on Sunday, turning into a surging wave once Tiger knocked in the final putt to seal his win.
Tiger’s presence at the top of the leaderboard even helped third round coverage on Saturday. The third round scored a 3.14 overnight rating, up 142 percent from 2017. That made it the highest rated third round of any FedEx Cup Playoffs event on record.
Tiger’s win capped off what may be the greatest comeback in all of sports, and he did it in the last tournament of the year. But even though the Tour Championship is the finale of 2018’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, it’s not the last time you’ll be able to watch Tiger play this year. He’ll be playing for the U.S. team in the 2018 Ryder Cup, which kicks off on Friday in Paris.
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter at @lizroscher.
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