The numbers are in, and things are not looking good for the LPGA Tour! Only a few days ago, the best women in golf went head-to-head in a grueling contest in the third major of the season. After witnessing what happened in the last two, fans were hoping to see some nail-biting action that would keep them hooked to their televisions. With the last Signature event of the PGA Tour season being played concurrently, the 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship was a test for the LPGA Tour to pull off a successful major and fight for views. One that they failed miserably in.

Josh Carpenter noted that there was a sizeable drop for the final round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. To watch Minjee Lee win, 428,000 viewers tuned in to NBC, as compared to 867,000 last year to watch Amy Yang win. Two years ago, 658,000 viewers watched Ruoning Yin lift the trophy. That year had weather issues. This year, there was a 50.63% drop from last year’s views and 34.95% less than the rain-riddled 2023 edition. In contrast, the PGA Tour’s Signature event flourished during the same weekend.

Per Carpenter’s tweet, Sunday peaked at more than 5.4M viewers for the Travelers Championship. CBS’s season-to-date men’s golf coverage is +13% over last year and the most since 2018. That’s indeed good news, amid the best players still divided. Overall, CBS’s signature event coverage this year averaged more than 2.7M viewers. The LPGA Tour major had only 7.92% views as the 2025 Travelers Championship’s final round. While more fans are tuning in to watch golf, as seen in the 13% rise in Keegan Bradley’s win, they are certainly less interested in the product presented by the LPGA Tour.

A part of the reason was the tiring challenges of the course that made it difficult to complete rounds. As many of the LPGA Tour stars like Charley Hull and Nelly Korda had complained, PGA Frisco wasn’t set up ideally for exciting golf. It was made for tedious action, where each round went way past the expected completion time.

Charley Hull, Nelly Korda & Co.’s complaint about Fields Ranch West

Right from the first tee leading onto the last putt, the Fields Ranch West course was a grueling test for everyone on the field. Hence, the 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship’s failure has been completely attributed to the inadequate setup.

As Charley Hull said, “Yeah, it was pretty crazy. We were playing two balls this morning and took us three hours and 10 minutes to play nine holes, which is pretty crazy. We play a four-ball at home in like three hours, you know what I mean, with bogeys and stuff. It’s pretty crazy. At the end of the day, it’s a pretty tough golf course, it’s really windy, and the setup is kind of tricky. Can’t really expect it to be anything else.” 

Hull’s words reflected in world #2, Jeeno Thitikul’s failure to win the major. She led the field for most of the tournament, but was pushed back to T4 in the final round after a 3-over 75 that tested her patience. The Thai star, who was only 2 strokes away from the 54-hole leader, Minjee Lee, ended the event 5 strokes behind her. Nelly Korda‘s issue with the course might explain why that happened, as she said, “The hole locations are kind of in almost impossible positions where not many people are hitting the greens, so obviously it’s going to take a lot more time.”

Korda ended the tournament at 6-over par and was placed at T19 on the leaderboard. While time-consuming, the chaotic setup at PGA Frisco was also a little too challenging for even one of the best golfers in the world to push for a win. The question is, how different would the leaderboard have looked if Fields Ranch West hadn’t been as tedious as it turned out to be?