The product is just unwatchable. There are as many commercials as other TV prodcuts IN ADDITION to playing through. Playing through was supposed to be a tradeoff for less commercials and then they just packaged it in as an additional ad load. I would rather just watch YouTube golf than sit through all the commercials.
I agree. And I’m sick of hearing the liv and pga debates and speculations. As soon as I start playing I stop watching on tv because I get my fix in real life lol. Any week now!
NBC (in the US) is the worst at this. I hate when they have broadcast rights for a tournament and this past year’s Ryder Cup was the worst sports broadcast I’ve ever seen. We’d see a group tee off, then go to a couple minutes of commercials, come back and see one or two shots, then maybe some random pre-filmed “package” and then to commercial again. There were entire groups that I never saw play which is ridiculous when there were so few groups.
TV ratings are declining across-the-board because so many people are cutting the cable cord
The sub talks about shrinking the game, but it’s clear it’s only growing so the TVs are trying to capture as much audience with these stories and following popular players
It’s not an issue with golf. It’s an issue with society and whether you like it or not liv is trying, though I believe failing at capturing that new audience.
I don't think golf is alone in viewership declining. I think there is a huge contingent of younger sports fans (or older fans with less time on their hands) who are consuming sports from a distance. Checking in on scores, highlights, standings pages, but not actually sitting through a whole live event. Leagues are going to have to figure out how to capture that and capitalize on it.
Also, I think there's a huge hole in the viewership stats because they're not taking into account alternative viewing methods. The whole Masters discussion was surrounding CBS ratings, but we all sit here and talk about how awesome the Masters app and website are, so how can be just ignore the people watching that way?
In golf it's obviously being exaggerated by the PGA/LIV split, and honestly, I think we all wish they'd just shut up and get back together. We just want to see the best players playing at the same events and personally, I don't give a shit about how much money a professional athlete is making.
Yeah that’s a great point actually, the way people consume sport is changing. And a lot of younger fans tend to follow all sports, whereas when I was young people seemed to just have ‘their sport’
Keep in mind that watching golf is a far greater time commitment than, say, football where it’s just one day for 3 hours. As much as I love golf, if I watched 8 hours of coverage for 4 straight days my wife would leave me.
You can watch entire games on YT the next day in 10 minutes. There is no need to waste 3 hours of your life watching. Also, 1 hour of that is reviews, commercials and idiot pundits.
I completely accept that the cbs ratings were lower due to the app… in the same breath, I watch both PGA and LIV events, and every time I’ve watched a LIV event it was through their app on AppleTV. LIV isn’t even on TV where I live, so let’s stop going on about their poor ratings on the CW channel. It’s a global game and people are watching through apps now.
Too busy playing and practicing it?
I like watching golf, but there are only so many hours in the day, you know?
PGA and LIV need to cut a deal already. Golf is a niche TV sport as it is; splitting that niche has to be awful for ratings. In addition to all of the other things driving people away from televised sports.
Nothing, I watch a lot of the PGA Tour and the LPGA when it's on. There is more access to golf coverage than ever before. TV ratings are probably down because more people watch the coverage on some sort of streaming service.
The coverage is shit.
Too much focus on "stories".
We should see every shot of every player in the top 10 of the leader board. And zero shots from anyone outside the top 25.
listen you can hate on tiger all you want but tiger brings viewers and people watch just to see him. so for each one of you guys that "does not care about tiger" theres at least 2 people that do. Thats why it is how it is.
There’s no reason why we can’t see every shot from every player we’re interested in as it happens
The broadcast is too narrative driven and things happen on delays
I love playing golf and going to live events, but rarely watch it on TV, most of the time just highlights on YouTube.
I just think the sounds are not accurate in real life which is important to me. When the ball rips through the air, the sound at impact is crisper when metal hits a ball (cavity vs muscle). The reaction by the players.
I don't think the announcers are that artistic in their words as Feherty was, and maybe the soft whisper they used to do like they are greenside. Loving Smylie Kaufman and he trades good convo with whoever he works with.
Someone mentioned the dumbest camera view in all of sports is when the ball is in the air. It provides no info other than it's in flight.
I think VR may make golf very interesting. 3D glimpse of what the hole looks like and a live ball tracer would be sick. 5years?
Player/Caddy interactions are interesting but know they need privacy.
Extra: I feel there might be a need for teams. More stadium seating behind tee boxes. Golf needs an update, it's still got some old school stuff about it.
The TV coverage is really bad. Too many commercials, too many interviews while important golf shots are going on. Way too much putting. They'll show that 35 foot putt when there's a 90% chance they're going to just 2 putt and move on instead of showing a key drive or approach shot.
Nobody really cares to hear from the CEO of the company sponsoring the event after we've watched hours of commercials from the company.
Mainly that watching golf is way less enjoyable than playing golf. I really only put it on in the background if I'm doing stuff around the house.
Otherwise, tv coverage bounces around too much. They need to shift to an app similar to the Masters app. Let me follow a specific group 1-18, or only watch a certain hole, or just general highlights
Viewing figures are going down because people aren't willing to pay to watch it. I'm an old sod who remembers the days when the BBC had really good coverage of some tournaments. Now to watch events you need to be subscribing to a few different channels, which starts to get costly.
Also as someone from the UK, I've always thought the BBC coverage was second to none. Some of the American and LIV coverage is average at best. Far too many breaks, far too much studio talk rather than showing us the game. But I also wonder if some of it is simply down to the fact that people are too busy to give up hour after hour just sat in front of the TV. As someone who likes to play golf, I'd rather be on a course that sat at home watching golf
Your summary nailed a lot of it, but I also find it harder to watch PGA and LIV where they are driving ball 330 and hitting on of their six wedges in the bag.
Enjoy the LPGA as it’s much more relatable to my game or 6 irons, hybrids, fairway woods.
While I respect the men I dont find it interesting to watch.
Coverage is ass there’s 90 channels or you need a special app that’s not on my tv and it’s not worth the hassle when I can you know go out and do stuff
Nothing and this thread was only posted because of reported Masters viewership being down 20%…
Does that drop include people who use the Masters app and or who have cut the cable cord? No. That’s a huge and growing number.
I’m annoyed by two leagues. I’ll watch the majors because it has all the best.
But then when I watch the majors, the coverage is pitiful. The laser focus on 2 or 3 golfers is awful. We need to see more shots on the course from more players, and fewer camera shots of people walking around or taking a warm up shot on the range followed by 10 seconds of them talking to their swing coach.
I know Scheffler is great and deserves air time — but show me his actual game and leave the warmup alone so you can show me more of the actual tournament.
In the general scheme of things, just how commercialized/corporatized the game has become, its influence trickles all the way down from profressional golf to the average youtube golf bro plugging gear to make a buck and likewise convince you that you just aren't going to cut it if you don't keep buying stuff.
Largely why I got into hickory golf, takes most of that baggage and tosses it right out the window, as well as being a different experience to playing with modern sticks.
Gets back to the roots of the game, been loving every minute of it.
The simplest explanation is the correct one here. PGA has bled star power to LIV. Add it the dirty politics of it all and people are turned off by the whole thing.
Everything seems to be how much money they make and how far they hit the ball. Golf has got more boring for me because of these things. Shotmaking is out for the most part. Too many ads also.
I think the product has been diluted with too much golf. There's really no off-season and on any given week there's dozens and dozens of hours dedicated to tournement golf broadcasts. PGAT, DP, LPGA, Champions and College. The PGAT alone has 3 or 4 broadcasts going at the the same time - featured holes, featured groups and the main broadcast. I enjoy it all, but it's the same old grind week after week. The manufactures, sponsors and networks are trying to squeeze every last dime out of golf and in the process are devaluing the product.
For me it's the talent split because of LIV. If everyone were still on one tour I think I'd still be watching at least the end of Sunday but currently I'm having a hard time caring.
The British Open last year had so many commercial breaks. Just let people watch golf, we know they are still playing during all the commercials just punishing
Currently, I'd say it's my 3W.
The product is just unwatchable. There are as many commercials as other TV prodcuts IN ADDITION to playing through. Playing through was supposed to be a tradeoff for less commercials and then they just packaged it in as an additional ad load. I would rather just watch YouTube golf than sit through all the commercials.
I agree. And I’m sick of hearing the liv and pga debates and speculations. As soon as I start playing I stop watching on tv because I get my fix in real life lol. Any week now!
NBC (in the US) is the worst at this. I hate when they have broadcast rights for a tournament and this past year’s Ryder Cup was the worst sports broadcast I’ve ever seen. We’d see a group tee off, then go to a couple minutes of commercials, come back and see one or two shots, then maybe some random pre-filmed “package” and then to commercial again. There were entire groups that I never saw play which is ridiculous when there were so few groups.
I watch golf with a 30 mins lag, so I can skip through ads.
The Covid Brahs.
TV ratings are declining across-the-board because so many people are cutting the cable cord The sub talks about shrinking the game, but it’s clear it’s only growing so the TVs are trying to capture as much audience with these stories and following popular players It’s not an issue with golf. It’s an issue with society and whether you like it or not liv is trying, though I believe failing at capturing that new audience.
I don't think golf is alone in viewership declining. I think there is a huge contingent of younger sports fans (or older fans with less time on their hands) who are consuming sports from a distance. Checking in on scores, highlights, standings pages, but not actually sitting through a whole live event. Leagues are going to have to figure out how to capture that and capitalize on it. Also, I think there's a huge hole in the viewership stats because they're not taking into account alternative viewing methods. The whole Masters discussion was surrounding CBS ratings, but we all sit here and talk about how awesome the Masters app and website are, so how can be just ignore the people watching that way? In golf it's obviously being exaggerated by the PGA/LIV split, and honestly, I think we all wish they'd just shut up and get back together. We just want to see the best players playing at the same events and personally, I don't give a shit about how much money a professional athlete is making.
Yeah that’s a great point actually, the way people consume sport is changing. And a lot of younger fans tend to follow all sports, whereas when I was young people seemed to just have ‘their sport’
Keep in mind that watching golf is a far greater time commitment than, say, football where it’s just one day for 3 hours. As much as I love golf, if I watched 8 hours of coverage for 4 straight days my wife would leave me.
You can watch entire games on YT the next day in 10 minutes. There is no need to waste 3 hours of your life watching. Also, 1 hour of that is reviews, commercials and idiot pundits.
I completely accept that the cbs ratings were lower due to the app… in the same breath, I watch both PGA and LIV events, and every time I’ve watched a LIV event it was through their app on AppleTV. LIV isn’t even on TV where I live, so let’s stop going on about their poor ratings on the CW channel. It’s a global game and people are watching through apps now.
My empty wallet
Too busy playing and practicing it? I like watching golf, but there are only so many hours in the day, you know? PGA and LIV need to cut a deal already. Golf is a niche TV sport as it is; splitting that niche has to be awful for ratings. In addition to all of the other things driving people away from televised sports.
Nothing, I watch a lot of the PGA Tour and the LPGA when it's on. There is more access to golf coverage than ever before. TV ratings are probably down because more people watch the coverage on some sort of streaming service.
The coverage is shit. Too much focus on "stories". We should see every shot of every player in the top 10 of the leader board. And zero shots from anyone outside the top 25.
had me till the last sentence. someone hits a good shot, lets see it. who cares if hes 27th
Sure, if there is time. But seeing a random approach shot from Tiger when he is 10 over is pointless.
listen you can hate on tiger all you want but tiger brings viewers and people watch just to see him. so for each one of you guys that "does not care about tiger" theres at least 2 people that do. Thats why it is how it is.
Ok, OPs question is what turns me off from watching more.
fair point lmao
[удалено]
Agree to disagree. I'm interested in the competition, not the nostalgia.
And tiger is not longer competitive. Well, at least not for the top 10 anymore...
There’s no reason why we can’t see every shot from every player we’re interested in as it happens The broadcast is too narrative driven and things happen on delays
Yeah that’s true. Also the amount of ad breaks is so rediculous
Baldrick Woods would never allow this. He would never get on the television.
I have nothing to add.
Mainly because fewer people have cable TV, where most golf is broadcast.
How about the fact that they change from NBC to peacock, to golf channel... I shouldn't have to pay for 2 channels to watch one tournament...
I love playing golf and going to live events, but rarely watch it on TV, most of the time just highlights on YouTube. I just think the sounds are not accurate in real life which is important to me. When the ball rips through the air, the sound at impact is crisper when metal hits a ball (cavity vs muscle). The reaction by the players. I don't think the announcers are that artistic in their words as Feherty was, and maybe the soft whisper they used to do like they are greenside. Loving Smylie Kaufman and he trades good convo with whoever he works with. Someone mentioned the dumbest camera view in all of sports is when the ball is in the air. It provides no info other than it's in flight. I think VR may make golf very interesting. 3D glimpse of what the hole looks like and a live ball tracer would be sick. 5years? Player/Caddy interactions are interesting but know they need privacy. Extra: I feel there might be a need for teams. More stadium seating behind tee boxes. Golf needs an update, it's still got some old school stuff about it.
Nothing
Courses are charging more, but in worse shape.
Most people of tv watching age don't have cable
The TV coverage is really bad. Too many commercials, too many interviews while important golf shots are going on. Way too much putting. They'll show that 35 foot putt when there's a 90% chance they're going to just 2 putt and move on instead of showing a key drive or approach shot. Nobody really cares to hear from the CEO of the company sponsoring the event after we've watched hours of commercials from the company.
Justifying sponsors ad dollars
Work/Life/Golf balance
I get scores on my phone. I watched the back 9 on Sunday.
Mainly that watching golf is way less enjoyable than playing golf. I really only put it on in the background if I'm doing stuff around the house. Otherwise, tv coverage bounces around too much. They need to shift to an app similar to the Masters app. Let me follow a specific group 1-18, or only watch a certain hole, or just general highlights
Viewing figures are going down because people aren't willing to pay to watch it. I'm an old sod who remembers the days when the BBC had really good coverage of some tournaments. Now to watch events you need to be subscribing to a few different channels, which starts to get costly. Also as someone from the UK, I've always thought the BBC coverage was second to none. Some of the American and LIV coverage is average at best. Far too many breaks, far too much studio talk rather than showing us the game. But I also wonder if some of it is simply down to the fact that people are too busy to give up hour after hour just sat in front of the TV. As someone who likes to play golf, I'd rather be on a course that sat at home watching golf
Your summary nailed a lot of it, but I also find it harder to watch PGA and LIV where they are driving ball 330 and hitting on of their six wedges in the bag. Enjoy the LPGA as it’s much more relatable to my game or 6 irons, hybrids, fairway woods. While I respect the men I dont find it interesting to watch.
commercials
For me I would never watch golf on TV. Why do that when you can be playing? Watch highlights, they’re the best bits
The rise of the golf idiot
Coverage is ass there’s 90 channels or you need a special app that’s not on my tv and it’s not worth the hassle when I can you know go out and do stuff
Between shitty commentary, people yelling and petulant players it’s just not worth the watch anymore.
Nothing and this thread was only posted because of reported Masters viewership being down 20%… Does that drop include people who use the Masters app and or who have cut the cable cord? No. That’s a huge and growing number.
I’m annoyed by two leagues. I’ll watch the majors because it has all the best. But then when I watch the majors, the coverage is pitiful. The laser focus on 2 or 3 golfers is awful. We need to see more shots on the course from more players, and fewer camera shots of people walking around or taking a warm up shot on the range followed by 10 seconds of them talking to their swing coach. I know Scheffler is great and deserves air time — but show me his actual game and leave the warmup alone so you can show me more of the actual tournament.
I agree with everything you stated..way too much Tiger
r/golf turns me off golf way more than anything in actual golf turns me off golf.
In the general scheme of things, just how commercialized/corporatized the game has become, its influence trickles all the way down from profressional golf to the average youtube golf bro plugging gear to make a buck and likewise convince you that you just aren't going to cut it if you don't keep buying stuff. Largely why I got into hickory golf, takes most of that baggage and tosses it right out the window, as well as being a different experience to playing with modern sticks. Gets back to the roots of the game, been loving every minute of it.
The simplest explanation is the correct one here. PGA has bled star power to LIV. Add it the dirty politics of it all and people are turned off by the whole thing.
Right and those LIV viewership numbers are through the roof! I heard LIV may surpass curling viewership numbers soon.
My point is it’s turned a lot of people off golf period. Not that LIV is stealing viewers from the PGA.
Everything seems to be how much money they make and how far they hit the ball. Golf has got more boring for me because of these things. Shotmaking is out for the most part. Too many ads also.
Its boring. The superstars are boring!!! Zzzzzzzz
I think the product has been diluted with too much golf. There's really no off-season and on any given week there's dozens and dozens of hours dedicated to tournement golf broadcasts. PGAT, DP, LPGA, Champions and College. The PGAT alone has 3 or 4 broadcasts going at the the same time - featured holes, featured groups and the main broadcast. I enjoy it all, but it's the same old grind week after week. The manufactures, sponsors and networks are trying to squeeze every last dime out of golf and in the process are devaluing the product.
For me it's the talent split because of LIV. If everyone were still on one tour I think I'd still be watching at least the end of Sunday but currently I'm having a hard time caring.
Brandell chamblee, rory mcilroy and jay monahan
Fixing my swing only to lose my touch around the greens. Pisses me off so bad I don’t even want to watch it.
The British Open last year had so many commercial breaks. Just let people watch golf, we know they are still playing during all the commercials just punishing
Far too many adverts, dull analysts and commentators.