Imago
Brooks Koepka at the 2015 Barclays Tournament held at the Plainfield Country Club in Edison,New Jersey., EDISON,NJ-AUGUST 26: Brooks Koepka answers questions from the press at the Barclays 2015 Pre-tournament press conference.Edison,NJ,August 25,2015.
Imago
Brooks Koepka at the 2015 Barclays Tournament held at the Plainfield Country Club in Edison,New Jersey., EDISON,NJ-AUGUST 26: Brooks Koepka answers questions from the press at the Barclays 2015 Pre-tournament press conference.Edison,NJ,August 25,2015.
When Brooks Koepka returned to the PGA Tour, many said it would benefit the tour. Looks like they were right. One week in, the numbers are already talking. Golf Channel and ESPN both saw a serious jump. And the season has barely even started.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
The proof came straight from the data as sports media reporter Josh Carpenter shared on X, “Golf Channel averaged 362,000 viewers on Thursday when Koepka returned, up 87% from 194,000 last year. From 12-3 ET on Thursday, ESPN averaged 381,000 viewers for the PGA Tour Live simulcast. These are the kind of numbers that make broadcasters pay attention.”
Some data from last week: Golf Channel averaged 362,000 viewers on Thursday as Brooks Koepka returned, up 87% from 194,000 last year on a Wednesday (Big Data + Panel).
From 12-3ET on Thursday, ESPN averaged 381,000 viewers for the PGA Tour Live simulcast.
ESPN typically only… pic.twitter.com/TwX5PvmdJg
— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) February 2, 2026
And that’s exactly what ESPN did. ESPN gave the Farmers Insurance Open three hours of live coverage for each of the first two rounds because Koepka was back. That was the first time in 20 years the network had shown a live PGA Tour event on its main channel. ESPN saw where the fans were going and decided to go there, too.
But here’s the thing. Brooks Koepka didn’t just come back from a long break. He came back from LIV Golf. He left the PGA Tour in 2022 when the Saudi-funded breakaway league was signing the biggest names in golf. So his return carries weight no other comeback can. And it’s exactly the kind of story that pulls casual fans back to their screens.
And LIV? The numbers tell a very different story. Across 17 telecasts on Fox in 2025, LIV Golf averaged just 338,000 viewers. Their best single event in the U.S. pulled in 484,000 — a record for the league. But on that same Sunday, a regular PGA Tour event on NBC drew 1.746 million viewers. LIV’s record was less than a third of what the Tour pulled in on the same day. Final round viewership for the PGA Tour averaged 2.66 million across 26 events on NBC and CBS in 2025. LIV’s five final rounds on Fox averaged just 385,000. The PGA Tour beat them by a factor of seven to one.
When Brooks Koepka walked back onto the course at Torrey Pines, the contrast was sharp. He shot rounds of 73, 68, 73, and 70 to finish tied for 56th at 4-under. Not a win. But that wasn’t the point. He made the cut. He played for four days. And the galleries made sure he knew he was welcome.
“The fans were awesome today,” Brooks Koepka said after his first round. “I loved to hear it, and I’m excited for the next few days.”
It wasn’t just about golf for him either.
“I’ve fallen back in love with the game,” he told reporters.
“Watching my son play a little bit and wanting to be able to see him watch me play well and realise how much this game has given me and how fun it is.”
That’s the real story behind the ratings. A 5x major champion remembering why he started playing in the first place.
However, Brooks Koepka’s return is only one chapter. The PGA Tour has been building something bigger all season long.
Top Stories
The PGA Tour is on a roll — And it’s just getting started
The 2026 American Express ended a week before the Open Farmers, and viewership was already very high. There were 125% more people watching the event over four days than there were last year. On Golf Channel, the third round on Saturday averaged 883,000 viewers, 284% more than the 2025 American Express. That was the best third round of the event since 2006.
The last round on Sunday wasn’t too far behind. It averaged 617,000 viewers, a 127% increase from the previous year. And this happened on the same day the NFL said that its Conference Championship Sunday was the least-watched since 2021.
The PGA Tour ended 2025 as CBS’s most-watched golf season in seven years. There was 17% more CBS weekend coverage than in 2024. The network averaged 2.969 million viewers per show, the most since 2018.
The Tour is now building on that momentum as it heads into 2026. Koepka’s return is only one part of it. But it could be the most obvious one. The fans turned up to see him. The broadcasters were there. The numbers reflected that. And it’s still the beginning of the season.