Scottie Scheffler’s arrest performed a job within the PGA Championship’s scores bump in 2024.
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“AND I REALLY MEAN THAT…”
David Berson mentioned, leaning ahead at his desk on the CBS compound on the PGA Championship. The matter was golf’s sagging TV scores, and Berson — CBS’s brand-new chairman — had one thing to say.
Welcome again to a different prolonged version of the Hot Mic Newsletter, GOLF’s weekly ship masking all issues golf media from me, James Colgan. The matter of this week’s publication is golf TV scores, together with the most recent from an explosive PGA Championship in Louisville. As at all times, when you’d wish to be the primary to obtain unique insights like these instantly from me, click on the hyperlink right here to subscribe to our free publication ship. But first, we return to the within of the CBS Sports manufacturing trailer, the place the brand new head of CBS Sports made it a degree to handle the swirling matter of golf’s TV scores head-on.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves when it comes to the ratings stuff,” he mentioned matter-of-factly. “It’s early to be worried.”
I hadn’t probed a lot, however Berson, the hand-picked successor to longtime CBS lead man Sean McManus, was desirous to set the document straight. The scores are usually not a priority for CBS, or a minimum of, that’s their official posture to the remainder of the golf world.
“Let’s not draw larger conclusions based on this small set of facts,” Berson mentioned. “There are a lot more ratings that need to come in before we can feel any sort of way.”
…BUT RATINGS DO MATTER
Clearly, golf’s falling scores — maybe fueled by the LIV/PGA Tour break up — have earned the eye of CBS management. The matter has been the topic of many a narrative during the last a number of months in professional golf, notably within the aftermath of CBS Masters scores that neared document lows.
CBS has its tentacles throughout golf: It’s solely midway by means of a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar PGA Tour rights deal, and it has longstanding agreements with the PGA of America and Masters. The previous few years have modified the panorama of the game, certain, however Berson says it’s early to be hammering the panic button.
“Would we like for there to be unity in professional golf? Yes,” Berson mentioned. “Would we like the tours to figure it out? Yes. But I have faith that they will.”
MERGER MATTERS
The merger is a giant concern for CBS, particularly with reviews pegging each side as making “minimal” progress towards a definitive settlement within the final 12 months. Fracture is hurtful for golf’s TV existence, the place stars are an enormous piece of the scores pie. The solely factor worse than fracture is … extended fracture.
“We’d like there to be a greater sense of urgency to getting the game back together,” Berson mentioned. “But, like I said, we’re not worried about the audience. It’s just too early.”
THE BIG THING
What’s Berson’s message to the golf world now that he sits in arguably its strongest chair?
“I love golf. And CBS loves golf,” he mentioned. “I don’t need individuals to see us as some company monolith. We’re a bunch of diehard sports activities followers. It’s our duty to inform tales and canopy occasions to assist sports activities followers take pleasure in watching one thing they genuinely love.
The B-Plot: The PGA acquired a Scottie Bump
THE BIG STORY
Scottie Scheffler’s world-shattering arrest on PGA Championship Friday morning was adequate to jolt scores all weekend lengthy in Louisville, the place CBS noticed a ten p.c Sunday bounce over final May’s Brooks Koepka victory.
WHAT IT MEANS
CBS was absolutely pumped to have some first rate scores information to share, notably after the aforementioned Masters Sunday numbers this yr (albeit with out the out-of-home enhance from 2023’s Easter Sunday Masters end).
The PGA numbers had been nonetheless the second-lowest of the final 5 years, however the competitors for sports activities followers on Sunday afternoon was steep. The PGA jutted in opposition to a pair of blockbuster NBA recreation 7s, a far gaudier opponent than final yr’s Koepka numbers, which had solely recreation 2 of the NHL’s Western Conference Finals to compete in opposition to.
THE SCOTTIE BUMP
Scheffler’s arrest absolutely contributed to the intrigue. For just a few moments on Friday afternoon, the story was a part of the sports activities monoculture in a approach few golf tales have reached over these turbulent previous few years. ESPN’s Friday numbers had been up accordingly, rising some 18 p.c over final May.
I wrote just a few weeks in the past about Scottie’s struggles to separate himself as a celebrity value watching. The occasions of this weekend went a good distance in reversing that development.
If you loved this story, you may get my unique insights despatched to your inbox every week by following the hyperlink right here. You can attain me by e mail at james.colgan@golf.com.
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