The PGA Tour continued its strong run of television ratings with another big week at the People’s Open.
CBS reported the 2026 WM Phoenix Open drew its highest final-round viewership in seven years, up 32 percent from a year ago with a peak of nearly 5 million viewers. The broadcast ran right up to the start of the Super Bowl, with Chris Gotterup defeating Hideki Matsuyama in a playoff to secure his second win of the season.
It wasn’t just the weekend that drew eyes, either. Golf Channel saw a 9 percent increase in average viewership for the first two rounds, including its highest Friday number for the WM Phoenix Open since 2013, with 849,000 tuning in to the second round, according to Josh Carpenter with Sports Business Journal.
These numbers are just the latest in a remarkable run for the Tour’s viewership. Last week, Golf Channel boasted a 75 percent year-over-year increase in ratings for every round of the Farmers Insurance Open. The week before that, The American Express saw a 125 percent increase in total viewership compared to the previous year. And last fall, CBS said the 2025 season its most-watched golf season since 2018.
Meanwhile, LIV Golf’s season opener in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, drew just 23,000 viewers on average over the four-day event, which Elvis Smylie won while holding off Jon Rahm in the closing stages on Saturday.
The PGA Tour now goes back to California for the penultimate event of its west coast swing, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am — the first signature event of the 2026 season — while LIV Golf heads to Adelaide, Australia.
