Scottie Scheffler delivered at Bay Hill what Signature Events promised to deliver. A star player in contention in the final round and a big name to be etched on the trophy. Previously, the Signature events were underwhelming, to put it mildly. In tangible terms, it lacked the lustre so commonly associated with ‘elevated’ events. The dwindling viewership numbers of the PGA Tour evince that.

Ironically, there has been no dearth of storylines this season for the Tour. And that goes for non-signature events as well. Jake Knapp, a former bouncer in clubs, earned his maiden PGA Tour victory. Matthieu Pavon became the first French international to win on Tour since the Second World War. Nick Dunlap repeated history by becoming the first amateur to win on the Tour in more than three decades. So, what explains the fans’ dilemma in tuning into the PGA Tour?

Signature events haven’t delivering ‘Signature’ ratings for the PGA Tour

Three years ago, with a loaded field, the Arnold Palmer Invitational set a record for broadcasting numbers in recent times. The 3.6 million viewership was a record high, only dwarfed by the 4.96 million in 2018. That was also an increase of 49% Y–O-Y jump. This year, the numbers dwindled down to 2.291 million as Scottie Scheffler waltzed to victory at Bay Hill. 

Granted, no one on the field came close to Scheffler’s ball striking. To top that, his red-hot putter seemingly made this a heavily tilted battle in his favor. Still surprising was that the numbers were down 30% from last year’s 3.259 million during Kurt Kitayama’s triumph. It was, in fact, lower than Scheffler’s previous Bay Hill victory in 2022, which drew 2.825 million viewers. 

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A few weeks ago, the story was pretty much the same for the Genesis Invitational. Tiger Woods’s withdrawal, coupled with Jordan Spieth’s DQ, didn’t bode well for the third Signature event of the calendar year. 

The broadcasting numbers experienced a 5% Y-O-Y decline as Hideki Matsuyama came from behind to snatch the title. Comparably, last year, the Genesis Invitational was one of the highest-rated events of the Tour. ESPN+ recorded the highest numbers on its platform for a PGA Tour event during the Genesis Invitational and the Players Championship. 

What explains the strange phenomenon?

Only last year, the designated events recorded viewership increased as Jon Rahm set the course on fire early on in his career, culminating in the Masters triumph. So far, the Tour has yet to see that dominance save for Scheffler’s four rounds at Bay Hill. But even that couldn’t improve the viewership woes for the Tour. 

This is not to put the blame squarely on the first-time winner’s shoulders for playing well. This also does not put the blame on Scottie Scheffler for not finding his putter hot early on or Rory McIlroy for his roller coaster ride. But signature events were billed as mini-majors inside the Tour.  60 to 80 players. 4M winner’s payout. 700 FedEx Cup points. Extra facilities for players. Everything associated with the $20 million purse events screams stardom.

Fans were not wrong in expecting all the stars to participate. That was the first misfire. API had a field of 69, as opposed to the 80-man field expected for the events. The AON Swing, the Tour’s answer to claims of privilege in the wake of designated events, could only do so much. But as Eamon Lynch wrote on GolfWeek, signature events tried to “engineer” results with loaded names that have never been possible. Ironically enough, without the longshot winners and relatively unknown names filling the top of the leaderboards, the field size would’ve been a little smaller. 

Nevertheless, only two winners, Wyndham Clark (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am) and Scottie Scheffler (Arnold Palmer Invitational), have ranked inside the top 10 this season, compared to six last year. Only one winner was a longshot at 100-1 last year, compared to six this season, Golf Central reported. 

First of all, there are still a few raised eyebrows on the matter of limited field events with no cuts. Or cuts that only exist on paper. Fans who defended the Tour as the flagbearer of meritocracy—everything that LIV Golf with its fat pockets and enclosed 54-man field wasn’t—were rather dismayed watching the Tour follow the same path. Fans remain anything but convinced that the Signature events are a way to go forward in the post-LIV era. Let alone, throwing millions at players is a sound measure to stop the increasing greed in professional sports.

Read More: Xander Schauffele’s Blunt Jay Monahan Admission Hints at Lurking Distrust: ‘A Long Way to Go’

Lucas Glover, a six-time winner on the Tour, for one, still sounds off on the rationale behind the Signature events. “I don’t like the idea at all. It’s selfish, and it’s a money grab. Nothing that has happened in the last two years in golf, in my opinion, that will help the game. I’ve yet to figure out what’s so bad out here that we had to do all the things we’ve done.”

So despite Jay Monahan defending the Tour’s depth as a competitive advantage over LIV Golf, the relative lack of strength in the field with players like Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, and Joaquin Niemann’s absence is not lost on anyone. At the Players Championship, it’s time for a handful of the remaining stars to step up the game. Moreover, the stars in the making will need more time to hog the limelight like Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, or Scottie Scheffler do. While wholesome stories do make for post-tournament headlines, they don’t drive the numbers that ultimately put money in the pockets.

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