Solheim Cup sees strong TV ratings uptick compared to recent matches

In a year that the news on television viewership for golf hasn’t always been the best, there was a big positive coming out of last weekend. As noted on X by the Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter, ratings for the Sunday singles in the American win over Europe in the Solheim Cup saw a massive gain over Spain last year and significant progress from the last time the matches were held on American soil.

Sunday’s viewership for the 15½-12½ American victory—their first since 2017—had an average viewership of 657,000 on NBC. That’s more than double the 277,000 who watched on Golf Channel in the earlier coverage window in 2023, when the teams tied 14-14 as Europe retained the Cup. Three years ago at Inverness, where Europe won on Labor Day Monday, there were 588,000 viewers on Golf Channel.

This year, of course, the Solheim was going up against the second Sunday of NFL games, but still fared decently in a time slot that saw the Cup wrapped up in the early afternoon in the Eastern time zone.

The numbers are good, but not what they used to be. In 2021, NBC televised the first two days of the Solheim on the weekend (with the Monday finish on Golf Channel) and drew 634,000 viewers on Saturday and 878,000 on Sunday.

Sliding ratings have been noteworthy throughout the PGA Tour season and were emphasized by all three FedEx Cup Playoff events being down by double digits, according to Sports Media Watch. The Tour Championship saw a 13-percent loss in viewership, while the FedEx St. Jude Championship was down 31 percent and the BMW Championship down 19 percent.

The major championships this season were a mixed bag. The ratings for the final round of Scottie Scheffler’s win in the Masters were down 22.8 percent from 2023, while the Open Championship, won by Xander Schauffele, got its lowest Sunday rating since 2015. But the PGA Championship, captured by Schauffele, and Bryson DeChambeau’s dramatic win over Rory McIlroy in the U.S. Open saw advances. The final round at Valhalla in May was up 8 percent, even while going up against a Game 7 in the NBA playoffs, while the Sunday at Pinehurst was the most-watched East Coast U.S. Open since 2013.

On the women's side, their biggest event of each season, the U.S. Women's Open, played this year at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania and won by Japan's Yuka Saso, saw viewership drop 39 percent on Sunday compared to last year's final round at Pebble Beach,