The 2023 American Express concluded on Sunday with a close fight between those at the top of the table. However, Jon Rahm maintained his lead to win his 9th PGA Tour win and second in 2023. However, despite the Spaniard’s stunning performance in La Quinta, the Tour had a disappointing viewership compared to last year’s American Express event. Check out how poor it is.

Rahm and first runner-up Davis Thompson shared the top position on the leaderboard on Saturday before heading to the final round. However, before the enticing competition among the duo, the ratings for the first round of the PGA Tour were revealed. Let’s take a look at how they turned out to be.

PGA Tour records poor ratings compared to last year

The American Express tournament marked the Tour’s second event of 2023. Undoubtedly, there was some excitement surrounding the event. Especially when an in-form Jon Rahm along with big names such as world number two Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Young, and rising talent Tom Kim were going to be the participants.

However, that wasn’t the case with the fans. According to Golf TV Ratings Twitter handle, American Express averaged 186,000 viewers. This is a massive fall of 37% compared to last year’s tournament. This came as a surprise for many as this year’s PGA Tour event had a much better field of players who provided a much more intriguing level of competition.

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Fans on Twitter had a wide range of reactions after being stunned by the Tour’s ratings on Thursday. The PGA Tour’s fans shared their dismay. “Nothing to see here”, LIV Golf fans saw this as an opportunity for the rise of the lucrative Tour.

“Bring on LIV”, said one fan of the Saudi-funded Tour. Though most fans tend to give the weekends of the golf tournaments more priority, the downfall of the PGA Tour’s ratings is still hard to be acceptable. Especially with the Tour currently in a battle with LIV Golf, the 92-year-old Tour will need to do better in the future.

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The American Tour has taken several measures to provide fans with much better action with increased purses and more competitive golf. It will influence even the top golfers to compete in all PGA Tour events possible. With a lot at stake for the Tour, can further downfall in ratings result in trouble for them? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.