Ratings: Mayakoba, LPGA Remind This Is A Time Of Year Suited Best For The Silly Season
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Played in the traditional Hero World Challenge slot, the 2020 Mayakoba Classic (.41/NBC) filled in for the cancelled tournament with a terrific field but was not watched outside of PGA Tour headquarters, The Villages and the Oklahoma State golf team house. To give an idea just how much people don’t want to see tournament golf right now, the lowest rated college basketball game (Baylor-Arkansas women) was on par with Golf Channel’s first early round broadcasts of the Mayakoba.
The LPGA fared even worse, with no day of the Volunteers of America Classic cracking the top 150 cable broadcasts last week.
The sports taking place in their traditional December slots—football, college basketball—appeared to do just fine, while the sports pushing their product in a non-traditional slot are not resonating as much with fans.
In golf’s case, the recent Match 3 fared well enough and I suspect next week’s PNC Challenge will do very well with Tiger and Charlie Woods in the field. To have any audience beyond the most core of golfers, this is a time of year best suited silly season golf and doesn’t ask us to even pretend to care about a season long points race.
