Are Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson Still Driving the Television Ratings in Golf?

A new guard has emerged in the game of golf.

That much is obvious.

The sun may shine on some of the old dogs' putters from time to time during the coming years, but the game now belongs to the likes of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and a large and ever growing group of talented young golfers.

But while the likes of McIlroy and Spieth may be the players to beat on the golf course, it is clear that accomplished veterans such as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are still the ones running the show when it comes to golf’s audience and television ratings.

The final-round television ratings for the 2015 Masters increased by 23 percent from 2014 and reached its highest level since 2011.

At first glance, this may appear as if players such as Spieth are beginning to capture the attention of the American golfing public.

But if you take just a small peak underneath the surface of the 2015 Masters television ratings, you will quickly realize that Spieth had very little to do with the ratings increase seen during the final round.

When Woods was in the mix throughout the weekend at the 2013 Masters, the third round averaged 8.5 million viewers and the final round averaged 14.7 million viewers.

During the 2014 Masters, CBS averaged 5.9 million viewers during the third round and then averaged just 11 million viewers on Sunday. These were the lowest weekend Masters television ratings since 1957, which, if you can believe it, was one year before Arnold Palmer won his first green jacket.

The funny thing is that Spieth was leading the 2014 Masters during the final round just as he was leading the 2015 Masters during the final round, and some would say that the 2014 Masters had far greater historical significance at stake than the 2015 Masters.

In addition to Spieth attempting to become the youngest ever Masters champion in 2014, Fred Couples was also in striking distance of the lead and attempting to become the oldest ever major champion, while fan favorite Rickie Fowler was well within reach of capturing his first career major.  

If Spieth was driving the increase in television ratings during the 2015 Masters, CBS would have experienced a similar boost during the 2014 Masters when Spieth held a two-stroke lead through six holes of the final round.

So what changed in 2015?

Well, that’s simple. Woods and Mickelson made moves on Saturday which boosted ratings by an incredible 48 percent when compared to the third round of the 2014 Masters, and Mickelson was still in striking distance on Sunday.

ESPN’s Thursday coverage of the 2015 Masters (which featured Woods) attracted its largest audience since 2010, which just happened to be the year Woods made his much anticipated return to golf following an embarrassing sex scandal. More than 1.2 million more viewers tuned into ESPN’s opening round telecast in 2015 compared to 2014, when Woods did not play in the event.

So let’s recap.

Woods was in the mix during the weekend at the 2013 Masters, and television ratings spiked.

Woods did not attend the 2014 Masters, and Mickelson missed the cut. Despite Spieth holding the lead through six holes while attempting to become the youngest player ever to win the event, television ratings took an absolute nose dive.

Spieth was once again leading during the weekend at the 2015 Masters, only this time Woods and Mickelson were both in the mix, and the television ratings spiked.

Do you see a pattern beginning to emerge here?

As amazing as McIlroy has been over the past five years, he too has shown an inability to really move the needle during major championships.

McIlroy’s record-setting win at the 2011 U.S. Open saw a 26 percent drop in final-round television ratings from the 2010 U.S. Open when Graeme McDowell won at Pebble Beach. Surely McIlroy would draw a larger audience than McDowell…oh, but wait, Woods was right in the mix on Sunday of the 2010 U.S. Open after carding a third-round score of 66.

ESPN’s final-round television ratings for McIlroy’s victory at the 2014 Open Championship decreased by 23 percent when compared to 2013 (down by 3.2 million viewers) and reached its lowest level since ESPN took over the coverage back in 2009.

Now how is that possible?

Well, in addition to Woods starting the final round of the 2013 Open Championship in striking distance of the lead, Mickelson staged an epic comeback to capture his first Claret Jug, which produced a ratings bonanza for ESPN.

McIlroy was clearly unable to move the needle in a manner even remotely resembling what Woods, and particularly Mickelson, were able to accomplish during the 2013 Open Championship.

Just a few weeks after McIlroy’s Open Championship victory, he won his second consecutive major at the 2014 PGA Championship.

Despite this event taking place just three weeks after the Open Championship and producing the exact same champion, the final round of the 2014 PGA Championship drew its highest television ratings since 2009 when Woods was beat out by Y.E. Yang on Sunday.

So what changed?

Well, Mickelson changed.

Mickelson was in the mix down to the final hole of the 2014 PGA Championship. This was clearly the difference in driving a huge television audience to this event when compared to McIlroy’s previous win just a few weeks earlier.

If that was not the case and McIlroy was the driving force in this ratings increase, then McIlroy’s Open Championship win just a few weeks earlier would have produced far better television ratings.

So let’s once again recap.

The 2013 Open Championship was a ratings bonanza for ESPN when Woods was in the mix on Sunday and Mickelson charged up the leaderboard to win the event.

The 2014 Open Championship was then a ratings disaster for ESPN when McIlroy won but Woods and Mickelson were nowhere in sight.

Just a few weeks later, the final-round coverage of the PGA Championship, which McIlroy also won with Mickelson in contention, was up by 36 percent from 2013 and reached its highest level since 2009, which was, not coincidentally, when Woods had his final-round battle with Yang.

It doesn’t take some kind of mathematical genius or code cracker to identify the ratings trend that we have witnessed over the past several years.

The young guns are certainly running the show on the golf course, but the old dogs are still the ones drawing eyeballs to the game.

This may of course change in the coming years when Woods and Mickelson fade further off into the sunset and players such as McIlroy and Spieth continue to add major championship victories onto their resumes.

But as of right now, the performances of Woods and Mickelson almost solely dictate the ratings levels that any given event will receive. This indicates that despite golf’s best efforts to push some of the game’s younger stars into the spotlight, the same two players who have been captaining the ship for the past two decades are still the ones steering the boat today.

The question then becomes, what happens to that boat once Woods and Mickelson eventually disappear from the scene completely?

That is a question nobody really knows the answer to at this time.

But one thing is for sure: Golf has not yet reached the point where it can depend on young players such as McIlroy and Spieth to drive huge audiences to the game.

And that, folks, could present a major problem for the game of golf in the coming years.