Tiger Woods return and Charlie Woods antics set huge TV audience record at PNC

Tiger Woods and Charlie Woods may have come up agonisingly short of a first win at the PNC Championship last weekend, but they did both contribute to smashing the TV figures at the end-of-season team event hosted by the PGA Tour. 

Woods, 48, and his son Charlie, 15, were agonisingly defeated by Team Langer in a playoff in Florida on Sunday.

That was after two-time Masters champion Langer, 67, holed a 20-footer for eagle to seal another win with his son Jason. 

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It turned out to be a dramatic final round, highlighted by Charlie making his first-ever hole-in-one during competition. 

Tiger unfortunately missed it but he wasted little time in celebrating with his son once finding out. 

"That was the thrill of a lifetime to be able to have that moment with Charlie," Woods said in the immediate aftermath of defeat.

Woods said the week was all the more special as his 17-year-old daughter Samantha, who inducted him into the hall of fame in 2022, was on the bag for 36 holes.

"For us to have that experience together, I know we didn't win, but it was the fact that we competed. No one really made a mistake out there," he added.

"We had to earn it, and that's what you want to have. Hats off to [the] Langers. They played amazing."

Tiger Woods and Charlie Woods contribute to new TV record at PNC 

According to Sports Media Watch, the first round of the 2024 PNC Championship averaged 2.92m viewers across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

That equated to a huge 147% increase on the first round of the 2023 PNC Championship and a new one-day record in the event's 29-year history.

The second and final round on Sunday averaged a little less at 1.42m viewers, but that was still a healthy 32% increase on 2023. 

The tournament marked Woods' first competitive return since bowing out of the 152nd Open at Royal Troon in July.

TV ratings across the board - and especially the final round of The Masters and The Open - were significantly down this year. 

Woods' return to the fairways and a resulting increase in TV figures was therefore a welcome sight for the PGA Tour to end the season. 

According to Rory McIlroy, TV ratings on the PGA Tour were down 20% across the board in 2024. 

McIlroy also revealed LIV Golf's ratings weren't too great, either. 

"If you look at the TV ratings of the PGA Tour this year, they're down 20% across the board. That's a fifth and that's big." McIlroy said recently.

"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."

McIlroy will be taking part in TGL alongside his business partner Woods in January 2025. 

This new indoor team event will be staged in partnership with the PGA Tour.

It will be interesting to see whether TGL is a turn on or turn off with golf fans when it starts up for the first time next month. 

Woods was spotted hitting balls into the giant TGL sim for the first time earlier this month. 

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