The television numbers are in on the just-completed Masters Golf Tournament. CBS Sportsí coverage of the tournament on Easter Sunday earned an average overnight household rating/share of 9.1/21 (meaning that 9.1% of households on average were tuned in at any given moment and 21% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into the Masters). This yearís final-round rating/share was up 1% from last yearís 9.0/19 when Phil Mickelson won his second Masters title and it was also up 25% from the last time the final round was played on Easter Sunday (7.3/18), when Mickelson won his first green jacket and first career major title in the 2004 event.
Meanwhile, the Shell Houston Open, which was played just a week ago, had a 1.7 share for its NBC telecast on Sunday compared with 2.2 share for the SHO’s May date last year on CBS. Even the BellSouth Classic — the tournament that that the SHO replaced this season on the PGA Tour calendar — was able to generate a 2.5 share on Sunday last year.
So much for the thought that the SHO’s new date a week before the Masters would increase viewership of the tournament. The Shell Houston Open has now officially entered the Tiger chasm.
Houston's Clear Thinkers
Longtime Houston attorney Tom Kirkendall's observations on developments in law, business, medicine, culture, sports, and other matters of general interest to the Houston business, professional, and academic communities.
Yeah, it doesn’t look good for the non-Tiger tourneys, but some small good news for the SHO:
http://golf.aolsportsblog.com/2007/04/08/another-winner-of-the-2007-masters-the-shell-houston-open/
Players that played both the SHO and the Masters did remarkably well. Might be coincidental, but perhaps the SHO can use this information to help improve their field. Tiger will never play it, but maybe some others will.
Personally, I enjoy the CBS telecasts more than the NBC coverage.
Stephanie, assuming a golfer isn’t just beaten down from playing too many tournaments in a row, statistics reflect that it’s better for a golfer to play the week before a key tournament. Nothing like a little competition to keep one sharp. Sitting out the week before majors has worked for Nicklaus and Woods, but everyone else would be better off playing.
As for the CBS and NBC coverage, I agree that CBS’s coverage is superior, although several of the commentators on NBC are first rate.