Brandel Chamblee blasts LIV Golf over TV ratings

Brandel Chamblee has never hid his disdain for the LIV Golf League since the breakaway launched over two years ago.

The former PGA Tour pro turned Golf Channel analyst has been one of the most vehement critics of LIV during the months of tumultuous division in men’s professional golf.

And while Chamblee has since suggested that a deal between LIV’s bankroller – the Saudi Public Investment Fund – and the PGA Tour will benefit the game in the long-term, he still has no time whatsoever for Greg Norman’s start-up league.

LIV held its Individual Championship finale over the weekend at Bolingbrook Golf Club, as Jon Rahm won in Chicago and banked $18m as the season champion.

But viewing figures reported by Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter showed that – with compelling finishes in the Irish Open and the Solheim Cup on the same day – LIV’s showpiece failed to cut through the noise.

There were 89,000 viewers on America’s CW Network for Sunday’s final round, with 134,000 watching on Saturday. It’s worth noting that ratings from the LIV Golf app have not been released and at the time of writing, 145,000 viewers have watched Sunday’s coverage on Youtube.

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“Despite billions of dollars for golf megastars, LIV remains in the witness protection program of sports viewership,” Chamblee wrote, responding to the CW Network figures.

“Partly because they are trying to ‘scale’ the county-fair motleyness of the 16th hole at the WM Phoenix Open and the Seve-like passion of the Ryder Cup, they fail, not least for the lack of innovation of their ideas but also for the origin of their investment.”

But then Chamblee was challenged about the PGA Tour’s own problems drawing the attention of disillusioned golf fans.

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Also reported by Josh Carpenter, only 69,000 watched Patton Kizzire win his first PGA Tour event in six years at the Procore Championship on Sunday. That was a huge drop off from the same tournament last year, as 298,000 tuned into Sahith Theegala’s victory in 2023.

“It depends on the event, and to be sure viewership is down, but overall the image of the PGA Tour is still about charity and merit,” Chamblee responded to a user on X.

“Which is why it still remains such a strong commercial property. Innovation is no doubt coming, but the PGA Tour with its partners still gives hundreds of millions to charity and has the most sought after demographic in all of sport. None of which can be said about LIV.”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.