LIV Golf Maykoba Sees Uptick In Ratings With PGA Tour's Final Round At Pebble Beach Canceled Due To Weather

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The final round of LIV Golf Mayakoba was going to see an increase in the ratings department given that it was the only golf on television on Sunday with the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am being postponed and ultimately canceled. The only question was just how big was the ratings uptick going to be for LIV.

If you compare the final round ratings to last season's season-opening final round, which also took place in Mexico, the increase in viewers is significant. If you look at Sunday's ratings compared to PGA Tour ratings from earlier in the week and other sporting events over the weekend, the numbers leave quite a bit to be desired.

According to Sports TV Ratings, the CW Network's broadcast of LIV Golf on Sunday had 432k viewers, which is a big jump from the 168k viewers it had for Saturday's broadcast. The 432k viewers this past Sunday trumped the final-round ratings of last season's season opener by approximately 140k viewers.

While a 264k increase in viewers from Saturday to Sunday's LIV broadcasts is a valiant boost, it still didn't come close to touching the 1.95 million viewers that tuned into CBS' third-round coverage from Pebble Beach on Saturday afternoon.

LIV Golf is also live-streamed on YouTube for free and Sunday's final round picked up another 27k views on the streaming platform. Interestingly enough, the first-round stream from Mayakoba on Friday afternoon dominated the other two days of action with 143k views on YouTube.

There is absolutely no denying that LIV is fighting a significant uphill battle to compete with the PGA Tour both from an overall interest standpoint and getting more eyeballs on its product. Having said that, these boosted ratings and the sheer volume of golf fans discussing LIV on social media over the weekend prove that more people are paying attention now than ever before. LIV Golf could have moved in a negative direction at the start of year three, but it's doing the opposite.

Given that the circuit is funded solely by the Saudi Public Investment Fund it has plenty of time to chip away at reshaping professional golf at a glacial pace.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.