The PGA Championship just delivered CBS its most-watched final round in five years, with Aaron Rai's back-nine surge driving viewership past 8 million at its peak.
CBS averaged 5.76 million viewers for Sunday's final round, according to a report by Yahoo Sports, a 21% jump compared to last year's tournament at Quail Hollow, where Scottie Scheffler won going away. The last time the final round of the PGA Championship drew more viewers was in 2021, when a 50-year-old Phil Mickelson won at Kiawah Island in front of 6.58 million viewers.
The peak came during Rai's back-nine run, when viewership climbed to 8.02 million. The final hour of his round averaged 7.83 million viewers for the network. Rai ultimately won by three strokes, though the tournament had felt like a tighter contest for much of the weekend before he pulled away late.
Saturday's third round was also historically strong. CBS drew 3.86 million viewers for the coverage, the best Saturday figure for the PGA Championship since 2018. Dozens of players entered the weekend in contention, giving the audience a crowded leaderboard to follow before Rai separated himself on Sunday.
The numbers carry an asterisk worth noting. This was only the second PGA Championship measured using Nielsen's expanded out-of-home viewing sample, and the first measured under Nielsen's new Big Data and Panel methodology. Both changes have generally increased viewership figures for live sports compared to prior years.
Still, the context makes the ratings notable. None of the previous three PGA Championships had averaged 5 million viewers in the final round, even though those tournaments were won by Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, and Brooks Koepka, three of the sport's most recognizable names. Rai does not carry the same mainstream profile as any of those players, making the audience size more significant.
The report noted that a closer finish could have potentially drawn an even larger audience, since the tournament was expected to be tightly contested heading into the final day.
The next major on the schedule is the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, with NBC set to carry the coverage.