Although the debate over what format best suits the season-ending Tour Championship continues to rage on, the current solution has captured the fancy of the viewing public, at least according to numbers released by CBS Sports on Tuesday.
According to the network, Sunday’s final round from East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta was the most-watched in the last five years of the event.
As Viktor Hovland was firing a final-round 63 to hold off Xander Schauffele and win the 2023 FedEx Cup, the CBS coverage averaged 4.613 million viewers, the best number on the final round since Tiger Woods snapped a five-year drought by winning the 2018 event.
Viktor Hovland celebrates with the FedEx Cup trophy after winning the 2023 Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. (Photo: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports)
Although weather impacted the early-round viewership on Sunday, the coverage peaked at over 5.5 million viewers later in the day.
For his efforts, Hovland took home the season’s top prize of $18M, while Schauffele took yet another second-place finish at East Lake, along with the $6M second-place prize.
For the entire season, CBS said numbers were up about 1 percent to 2.206 million for its 42 PGA Tour broadcasts, but the nine designated (now signature) events were up 5 percent year over year.