Jim Nantz got this prediction right about the West Coast swing

Jim Nantz called it. He guaranteed it, in fact. Said it would be, “slam dunk of the year.” Prior to last month’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course, the CBS golf anchor predicted that the network’s ratings of PGA Tour events on the West Coast would be higher than a year ago.

“I'm not a ratings crunchers type guy,” Nantz said during a Zoom call with Golf Digest, “but golf is going to come out of the West Coast on over-the-air network television, and it's going to be up guaranteed, OK? You just never know how it rolls out, but so often you get started with name champions. and I think we have rich storylines that are going to take place on this west coast, and we're going to be off and running. We're gonna be galloping.”

So, how did that turn out?

Well, viewership for the West Coast swing averaged 2.272 million viewers across eight weekend telecasts on CBS Sports, which includes Friday-Saturday at the Farmers and Saturday-Sunday for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, WM Phoenix Open and last week’s Genesis Invitational. That amounts to a 17-percent increase over 2024 when CBS averaged 1.936 million viewers.

The Genesis, moved to Torrey Pines after the widespread fires in Los Angeles, enabled the network to finish strong despite a Sunday leaderboard that wasn’t necessarily the strongest given that 47 of the top 50 players in the world were competing in the signature event. With Ludvig Aberg charging to victory and only the rain-delayed Daytona 500 with which to compete, Sunday’s final round drew an average viewership of 3.395 million, representing a 5-percent increase compared to the 2024 edition. That was the most-watched PGA Tour final-round telecast on any network since last year’s Players Championship.

Can’t wait to hear Nantz’ prediction for who will win the Masters.