It looked like the Masters could be forced into a first Monday finish since 1983 as the weather pushed the course and players to their limits.
But a marathon Sunday at Augusta National saw Jon Rahm romp to victory by four shots and CBS reported the largest viewership figures of any golf broadcast since the 2018 tournament.
The action averaged 12.06 million viewers which represented a 19% increase from Scottie Scheffler’s victory last year.
This figure also made it the most-watched golf telecast on any channel since the 2018 Masters when Patrick Reed won.
The network recorded more than 15 million people watching around the time Rahm became the fourth Spaniard to slip on the Green Jacket and the ninth European in the event’s history.
CBS accumulated a combined average of 16.251 million viewers throughout the final day that saw Brooks Koepka initially build a two-shot lead after the third round before being reeled in by the new World No 1.
It even topped the day Tiger Woods sensationally won his 15th major title in 2019, but the final round four years ago was rounded off earlier than usual due to a bad weather forecast.
Both CBS and the Masters will no doubt be delighted with such a successful weekend of broadcasting during a time when TV ratings in the sport are under such scrutiny.
The popular sports channel vowed to be impartial when showing coverage of both PGA Tour and LIV Golf players ahead of the event, and the top of the leaderboard featured a mixture of the two.
Having signed its first broadcast deal with the CW Network in America, LIV Golf has had a rocky start to life on mainstream television.
After the first Saudi-financed event of 2023 in Mexico, it was reported LIV Golf Mayakoba earned a rating of 0.2 across 26 different markets.
But the rebel tour countered this and claimed the event at El Camaleon Golf Club generated an audience of 3.2 million viewers over the weekend.
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In addition, the CW broadcast of the second round saw 1.6 million people tune in and more than 1.3 million total linear viewers were recorded during the final round when Charles Howell III cashed in the $4 million winner’s cheque.
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