Interest in televised golf has been up this year by just about all accounts, and numbers released by Golf Channel Golf coverage alive and well, even in the events Tiger doesn’t play, such as the Waste Management Phoenix Open. And numbers from the Phoenix Open, provided by the Golf Channel, are despite frost delays that disrupted the tournament’s scheduled tee times and forced a Monday finish.
Through the first six weeks of the 2011 PGA Tour season, ratings for every single comparable round televised on Golf Channel have been up over 2010. Golf Channel’s ratings for its PGA Tour coverage is up more than 50 percent through the first six events of the year versus 2010. Every comparable PGA TOUR round on Golf Channel so far in 2011 is up year over year through the first six events:
The highest increase was 115 percent (Round 2, Friday, of the Farmers Insurance Open, and the average increase per round is 56 percent.
The stats do not include Sony Round 1 (which was a rainout), or rounds 3 and 4 (weekend lead-in coverage) of the Waste Management Phoenix Open (Golf Channel had full coverage of weekend in 2010 due to NBC’s coverage of the Olympics, therefore rounds weren’t comparable in the two years).
In addition, tournament ratings for Golf Channel’s exclusive coverage of the European Tour’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic were up 420 percent over last year’s event.
