“Bulls*** – we don’t care.”
These were the words of Jon Rahm in a LIV Golf promo video for a documentary that arrived at the start of the 2025 Masters week.
Rahm denied that his move from the PGA Tour to the Saudi-funded league meant he didn’t care about golf. “Don’t ever tell me I don’t care about golf,” he added.
It’s not clear who the Spaniard’s frustration was aimed at. The two-time major champion’s performances in his new home show he cares. He won LIV’s individual title in 2024. But the question is: Do the fans care?
A good barometer to measure if golf fans care about watching you, of which there are millions upon millions on earth, is to look at TV ratings. In 2025, LIV signed a hugely significant deal with Fox Sports which finally secured coverage on a mainstream US channel.
LIV can project to the masses. So what better time to compare TV Ratings with the PGA Tour? You might say there is no good time to discuss TV ratings when it comes to LIV Golf.
As you’ll see in the tables below, the PGA Tour completely dwarfs LIV in viewership. While it was reported that 89,000 people watched the final round of the 2025 season opener in Riyadh, 2.9 million people watched the last 18 holes of the WM Phoenix Open, which was a resounding victory for Belgian Thomas Detry.
Even in LIV’s best week of the year, the Adelaide event which has been a roaring success since being added to the schedule in 2023, 249,000 people tuned in for the last round. In the same week, 3.4 million people watched Ludvig Aberg win the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines.
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I enjoy watching Rahm, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau as much as Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Ludvig Aberg, but a lot of people evidently don’t.
Koepka and DeChambeau are the only two players to win majors since joining LIV. DeChambeau’s US Open victory of 2024 was particularly compelling and spiked his already rocketing popularity, complemented by the rise of his YouTube channel.
But even these stars doing what they do best haven’t drawn more backsides to seats for LIV’s coverage. Maybe it isn’t fair to compare a new league in its infancy to a tour that has nearly 100 years of heritage to boast. LIV doesn’t have the Memorial, the RBC Heritage, or the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Time, and lots of it, will tell if LIV can ingrain its tournaments in the hearts and minds of golf viewers in the same way the PGA Tour has.
A winner at the Masters wouldn’t have hurt. DeChambeau and Patrick Reed did their very best. LIV would parade another major winner through the streets like a coronation.
But can a LIV major winner change the mindsets of the thousands who see the PGA Tour as their default switch-over on a Sunday night?
Each Monday is like a National Lottery on X (Twitter) with TV ratings. Josh Carpenter of the Sports Business Journal and @YeahClickClack roll out the numbers as we all look for the results with bated breath. These are the sources of the viewership figures I’ve used.
@YeahClickClack seemingly specialises in LIV Golf figures courtesy of Nielsen, a global leader in audience insights and data. Carpenter is your man for PGA Tour viewership, and with their combined wealth of knowledge, I have formed two tables: one for LIV Golf final round viewership across Fox Sports and PGA Tour viewership across whichever station has the broadcast that week.
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As I continue to update these tables during the season, I’ll only include weeks where PGA Tour and LIV Golf events co-habit. For example, LIV Golf Riyadh was in the same week as the Phoenix Open, as shown in the order of the tables.
LIV Golf TV Ratings
| Event | Winner | Final Round Viewers |
| LIV Golf Riyadh (Feb 6-8) | Adrian Meronk | 85,000 |
| LIV Golf Adelaide (Feb 14-16) | Joaquin Niemann | 249,000 |
| LIV Golf Hong Kong (March 7-9) | Sergio Garcia | 29,000 |
| LIV Golf Singapore (March 14-16) | Joaquin Niemann | 34,000 |
| LIV Golf Miami (April 4-6) | Marc Leishman | 484,000 |
| LIV Golf Mexico City (April 25-27) | Joaquin Niemann | 110,000 |
| LIV Golf Korea (May 2-4) | Bryson DeChambeau | 48,000 |
| LIV Golf Virginia (June 6-8) | Joaquin Niemann | 97,000 |
| LIV Golf Dallas (June 27-29) | Patrick Reed | 75,000 |
| LIV Golf UK (July 25-27) | Joaquin Niemann | 62,000 |
| LIV Golf Chicago (August 8-10) | Dean Burmester | 344,000 |
| LIV Golf Indianapolis (August 15-17) | Sebastian Munoz | 426,000 |
| LIV Team Championship (August 22-24) | Legion XIII | 422,000 |
PGA Tour TV Ratings
| Event | Winner | Final Round Viewers |
| WM Phoenix Open (Feb 6-9) | Thomas Detry | 2.9 million (CBS) |
| Genesis Invitational (Feb 13-16) | Ludvig Aberg | 3.4 million (CBS) |
| Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 6-9) | Russell Henley | 2.807 million (NBC) |
| Players Championship (March 13-16) | Rory McIlroy | 3.6 million (NBC) |
| Valero Texas Open (April 4-6) | Brian Harman | 1.746 million (NBC) |
| Zurich Classic of New Orleans (April 24-27) | Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin | 1.631 million between 3 – 7.40 pm (CBS) |
| CJ Cup Byron Nelson (May 1-4) | Scottie Scheffler | 2.918 million (CBS) |
| RBC Canadian Open (June 5-8) | Ryan Fox | 2.376 million (CBS) |
| Rocket Classic (June 26-29) | Aldrich Potgeiter | 2.797 million (CBS) |
| 3M Open (July 24-27) | Kurt Kitayama | 1.854 million (CBS) |
| FedEx St. Jude Championship (August 7-10) | Justin Rose | 3.6 million (NBC) |
| BMW Championship (August 14-17) | Scottie Scheffler | 3.5 million (NBC) |
| Tour Championship (August 21-24) | Tommy Fleetwood | 4.491 million (NBC) |
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What do you make of the LIV Golf TV ratings? Tell us on X!
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