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For all of the hype and trash-talk in the build-up, the much vaunted head-to-head between Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau failed to deliver where it counts – television ratings. 

Broadcast across the United States on the TNT cable channel, only
633,000 people tuned in to watch the two major-winning rivals go
head-to-head in a 12-hole match in Las Vegas.

That gave it a Nielsen rating of 0.2. For context, the Sunday of the
2019 Masters – where Tiger Woods won his 15th major – earned a rating of
9.9, with more than 15.4 million viewers.

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Each of the previous four editions of ‘The Match’ series for which
ratings have been gathered drew a minimum of one million viewers.

The Match II, which saw Tiger Woods and American football legend
Peyton Manning take on Phil Mickelson’s and Manning’s fellow NFL icon
Tom Brady, attracted the biggest audience of all, with 5.8 million
viewers tuning in. That, though, was in the midst of the pandemic and
during a period in 2020 when all major professional sports were
suspended.

The most recent contest, where Mickelson and Brady took on DeChambeau
and another American football superstar Aaron Rodgers in July, drew
1,249,000 viewers.

Whilst ‘Fall Golf’ TV ratings do tend to err on the lower side, it’s
hard to imagine that TNT execs won’t be at least a little disappointed
not to have performed better, particularly given the well-documented
‘enmity’ between Koepka and DeChambeau that has dominated golf headlines
over the last eight months.

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For example, the Sunday of October’s CJ Cup, also staged in Las Vegas, enticed a bigger audience.

The contest itself proved to be a one-sided affair. DeChambeau failed
to win a single hole, with four-time major champ Koepka running out a
4&3 winner.


author headshot

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor

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