Rory McIlroy's 'not good for anyone' claim vindicated after The Open
Rory McIlroy's concern about a dwindling TV ratings appears to be justified after shocking viewing figures for the final round of The Open were revealed.
Rory McIlroy revealed before The Open one of the reasons he softened his stance on the breakaway LIV Golf League was because the constant bickering about money at the top of the men's game was turning people off.
And it appears that he might be right after the final round of the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon drew its lowest viewership in nearly a decade.
American Xander Schauffele claimed his second major championship title of the year when he prevailed by the Scottish coast last week.
The 30-year-old pulled clear at the 11th hole and never looked back, much to the disappointment of England's Justin Rose and Billy Horschel.
According to Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal, 3.39m turned in to watch the Olympic champion's victory.
That represents a 4% drop from Brian Harman's win at Royal Liverpool in 2023, which also saw its lowest ratings since 2015.
Is there a bigger problem at large?
Even The Masters saw a drop of 20 per cent in terms of viewers this year, with CBS reportedly drawing 9.589m viewers on the final day.
The PGA Championship at Valhalla reportedly attracted an audience of five million.
Whilst 11.4m viewers turned in to watch Bryson DeChambeau claim the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No.2.
What did Rory McIlroy say?
McIlroy expressed concern before the PGA Championship.
"If you look at the TV ratings of the PGA Tour this year, they're down 20 per cent across the board," he said.
"That's a fifth. That's big. I would say the numbers on LIV aren't great either in terms of the people tuning in.
"I just think with the fighting and everything that's gone on over the past couple of years, people are just getting fatigued, and it's turning people off men's professional golf, and that's not a good thing for anyone.
"It's going to be really interesting to see how the four major championships do, or even the three, because put Augusta aside, I think that sort of lives in its own world."
He made the comments at the same time he also changed his mind about whether players who bolted to LIV should be 'punished' if they wish to play PGA Tour events in the future.
It's a thorny topic and it's clear McIlroy may be in the minority with his opinion.
"I don’t think there should be a punishment," he said.
"Obviously I’ve changed my tune on that because I see where golf is and I see that having a diminished PGA Tour and having a diminished LIV Tour or anything else is bad for both parties.
"It would be much better being together and moving forward together for the good of the game."
The PGA Tour are continuing their discussions with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to ratify last June's framework agreement.
Tiger Woods claimed in his news conference before The Open that the talks were going well.
Although, as ever, he was short on the details.
